Place Google Calendar events on hold

As part of your Google Workspace data eDiscovery projects, you can use holds to preserve Calendar data indefinitely to meet legal or preservation obligations. You can apply a hold to individual accounts or all accounts in an organizational unit. Holds override retention rules, so data on hold is protected from your normal data governance rules that might purge it otherwise.

If your Google Workspace administrator removes a user's Vault-supporting license, a hold no longer protects the user's data from deletion. Data marked for deletion can be immediately purged and can't be restored. Learn more about Preserving data for users.

Important information about Calendar holds

Before you set holds, we recommend that you read Get started with holds in Google Vault.

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What data is held

Covered:

• Primary calendar events and event versions
• Out of office events
• Booked appointments
• Focus time

Important: Only one version of an event is held per day (the last version available in the UTC time zone). The number of versions held depends on your retention rules. For details, go to Search within the revision history of an event.

Not covered:

• Secondary calendar events, such as holiday or group calendars
• Tasks
• Unbooked appointments
• Working locations

For details, see Calendar events supported in Vault.

Deleted events on hold are always visible in Vault, but not visible to users

When an event that's on hold is deleted by a user or a retention rule, the user can't access the event anymore, but the event isn't purged. As a Vault admin with appropriate privileges, you can still search for, preview, and export the event.

Place a hold on Calendar events

1. Sign in to https://vault.google.com.
2. If you have created a matter, click Mattersyour matter.

   Otherwise, create a matter. For details, go to Create and manage matters.

3. Click HoldsCreate and enter a unique name for the hold.
4. Click Choose serviceCalendarContinue.
5. Select the scope of the hold:
   • Specific accounts—Enter one or more account or group email addresses.
   • Organizational unit—Select an organizational unit.

     Important: We strongly recommend that you don't select the top organizational unit. If you do, you won't be able to delete any Google Workspace accounts from your organization. For details, go to Why shouldn't I set a hold on the top organizational unit?

6. Click Create.

Edit a hold

You can change some hold parameters, but you can't change the service or the scope type (for example, you can't change Calendar to another service or change accounts to an organizational unit).

1. Sign in to https://vault.google.com.
2. Click Mattersthe matter that contains the hold.
3. Click Holdsthe hold name.
4. Click Scope, then add or remove accounts or change the organizational unit.
5. Click Save.

Delete a hold

Important: When you delete a hold, the normal retention policies apply immediately. Vault deletes content that is past the retention rule expiration date in the next deletion cycle. 

1. Sign in to https://vault.google.com.
2. Click Mattersthe matter that contains the hold.
3. Click Holds.
4. Point to the hold name and click DeleteDelete.