What is the Email Retention Policy?

The new email retention policy will help LLCC better manage email messages and document retention by adding an expiration period to email messages. Email messages will be automatically and permanently deleted after 365 days.

How exactly does it work?

• Email messages in any folder, including “Inbox”, “Drafts” and “Sent Items” folders and subfolders will be retained for 365 days. Messages older than 365 days will be automatically and permanently deleted. The same will apply to any other folder except for the “Deleted Items” and “Managed Folders”.
• Email messages in the “Deleted Items” folder will be retained for 30 days. Messages older than 30 days will be automatically and permanently deleted.
• All email messages relating to impending or ongoing litigation, FOIA discovery requests, constituting records under the Local Records Act, or special projects are to be stored in the “Hold Items” folder where they will be retained indefinitely. Messages in this folder will not expire. Subfolders can be created under the “Hold Items” folder. This folder can be found under the “Managed Folders” folder.
• It is the user responsibility to move messages into the “Hold Items” folder.
• It is the user responsibility to delete items from the “Hold Items” folder when they are no longer needed.

When will the new email retention policy take effect?

The new email retention policy will be implemented in two phases:

The new “Manage Folders” folder appeared on all employee email accounts in early August. This folder contains the “Hold Items” folders under it. At this point no message will expire at all. The objective is to have these folders available so users can get familiarized with them. Messages that need to be retained can be moved onto the “Hold Items” folder at this time.

The actual Retention Policy that deletes email messages after 365 days, unless they are moved to the “Hold Items” folder, will take effect November 7, 2011. On that date a new folder labeled “Expiring Items” will also appear under the “Managed Folder” folder.  

What is the purpose of the “Expiring Items” folder?

Checking the “Expiring Items” folder is a very easy and convenient way to identify what message will expire in 60 days or less. When messages reach 305 days of age, they will be automatically moved to a folder called “Expiring Items” under the “Manage Folders” folder. Messages in this folder will expire when they reach 365 days of age.

What do I need to do to preserve email messages I want or need to keep for over 365 days?

Email messages that need to be preserved for over 365 days need to be manually moved to the “Hold Items” folder.

Can I simply Archive or Auto-Archive all my email messages onto my local hard drive?

Auto-Archiving will no longer be enabled in Outlook. If a message needs to be retained for over 365 days, it should be stored in the “Hold Items” folder for as long as is needed.

I already have Archived email on my local hard drive. What will happen to it?

Nothing, existing archived messages will remain unchanged. However, users are strongly encouraged to delete archived messages that are no longer needed.