End User Applications - Message Management

This article contains information on why messages cannot be deleted or marked as read in Mimecast for Outlook, due to archiving, covering mailbox storage management, continuity, legal obligations, and GDPR compliance.

This applies to Mimecast End User applications; Mimecast Personal Portal, Mimecast for Outlook, Mimecast Mobile, and Mimecast for Mac.

The delete or mark as read option is not enabled in Mimecast because of the archiving feature. The archive consists of all messages that are sent via Mimecast, or copies of them that are saved in Mimecast through journaling.

Mailbox Storage Management

As a view of your email archive, Mimecast displays all messages received by an end user. This is regardless of whether these have been deleted from your corporate environment. Microsoft Exchange is the most common mail server used by Mimecast customers. Storage for email stored in Microsoft Exchange is expensive. You've probably heard your IT department say they're archiving much of your email. Some IT departments delete all emails after six months. This is where Mimecast becomes really useful, even though your organization no longer has the email. You can still search for it using Mimecast applications, returning results in seconds. With all your data safely stored in Mimecast, your IT departments no longer need to worry about costly on-site hardware maintenance or increasing storage costs.

Continuity

Mimecast also has a feature that assists you when your servers are down. Mimecast ensures that messages, whether inbound (when receiving messages from other companies) or outbound (when you're sending messages out to other companies), are sent and/ or received. When your Microsoft Exchange server returns online, Mimecast delivers all the messages, allowing you to see them in Microsoft Outlook.

Legal Obligations

Emails will not be deleted from Mimecast, as your administrators may have legal requirements to fulfill. If a message is accidentally deleted from your Outlook profile, Mimecast allows you to recover it into Microsoft Outlook. Marking an email as read means Mimecast would need to update each message for each customer and send updates regarding the email status back to the Microsoft Exchange server. However, this isn't currently possible. 

General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) Compliance

General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is a regulatory requirement designed to:

• Harmonize data privacy laws across Europe.
• Protect and empower all EU citizens' data privacy.
• Reshape the way organizations across the region approach data privacy.

This is not an end-user function. All GDPR requests must be directed to your administrator. See Mimecast Customer Care - GDPR configuration.