Account Settings - Data Retention FAQ

This article contains information on Mimecast retention periods, including perpetual retention, retention adjustments, and security-only account policies, to help administrators manage email and file data storage effectively.

The retention period configured for your Mimecast Account determines the length of time email and file data is stored in your archive. When an email sent date matches your retention period, the email and its attachments are expired from Mimecast, and cannot be retrieved. It's therefore important to ensure that the appropriate Retention period is selected for your account based on the requirements of your organization.

Depending on the service that your organization has subscribed to, your retention period may differ. Your retention period is displayed in the Account Profile, accessible from the Administration Console. See the Account and Support Details section of the Administration Console Dashboard page for full details.

You can increase or upgrade your retention period and to ingest historical email data. For more information on this, contact your Mimecast Account Representative. You can also reduce retention periods for specific emails using policies.

Perpetual Retention FAQs

Q:	What happens to my existing archive when I upgrade to Perpetual Retention?
A:	Once perpetual retention has been enabled, all data subsequently archived is retained for the duration of your Mimecast contract. The date of expiry of messages already in the archive will not change automatically. Speak to your Account Manager if you are interested in modifying the retention of messages already archived. Any messages which have previously expired cannot be resurrected and are no longer available.
Q:	Some messages in my archive have already expired. Can Mimecast resurrect them with an upgrade to Perpetual Retention?
A:	No. The perpetual retention upgrade only applies to emails sent or received after the upgrade. Messages that have expired are no longer available.
Q:	Can customers still purge email after upgrading to Perpetual Retention?
A:	Yes, Mimecast recognizes that administrators may occasionally need to immediately expire specific messages. We strongly recommend consulting with Mimecast Support in this instance, as expiry is permanent and irreversible.
Q:	How will this change affect messages that are already in the archive?
A:	By default, the retention period for legacy email remains unchanged. If you wish to retain these messages in perpetuity, Mimecast offers a Perpetual Retention Adjustment service that will remove expiry dates from archived messages. Contact your Account Manager if you are interested in a quote for this service. See the Perpetual Retention Adjustment FAQs section below for further information.

Perpetual Retention Adjustment Service FAQs

Q:	Can I choose which archive messages are to be adjusted?
A:	Pricing is set on the assumption that the entire archive would be adjusted. This is priced competitively on the assumption that full coverage is generally less resource-intensive than selective adjustments. If you are interested in selective adjustments, contact your Account Manager in the first instance to discuss your requirements.
Q:	How long does the adjustment take?
A:	We cannot commit to a time frame as the operation varies depending on: The number of messages to be adjusted. The complexity of the request. Overall grid load. For guidance, a request for a 100-seat account with less than 5 years of archived data might take 2 weeks to complete.
Q:	Can you guarantee no further messages will expire while my request is pending?
A:	We are unable to commit to specific timing, but we can assess whether any items are due to expire imminently and take steps to keep these messages active so that they are included in the adjustment.

Security Only Accounts FAQs

Q:	What is the data retention period for security-only accounts?
A:	The data retention period for security-only accounts is 30 days.