How retention works

Vault is fully integrated with the Google services that it supports, so there is no separate archive.

When a retention rule is applied to a message or file, the item is deleted from the service, even if the user has not marked it for deletion.

For example, you create a default retention rule to retain Gmail messages for 365 days, and have no custom rules or holds. Vault deletes every message older than 1 year.

• Gmail and Groups—The retention period starts the day that the message is sent or received.
• Drive, Meet, and Sites—Depending on how the retention rule is set up, the retention period can start:
  • When the item was created
  • When the item was last modified
  • When the item was moved to the trash
  • If a Drive label has a date field in the condition, on the value set for Drive label date field
• Chat—The retention period starts the day the message was sent. The retention period start doesn't change when a user edits or deletes a message.
• Calendar—The retention period starts when the event ends. For details, go to About retention periods.
• Voice for Google Workspace:
  • Text messages—The retention period starts at 11:59 PM UTC-7 the day that the message was sent.
  • Voicemails and their transcripts—The retention period starts at 11:59 PM UTC-7 the day that the voicemail was created.
  • Call logs—The retention period starts at 11:59 PM UTC-7 the day that the call was made or received.

When the default retention period expires, Vault purges a message or file only if:

• It is not being retained by any custom retention rules. Data is always kept as required by the custom rule with the longest retention period. Custom retention rules always take precedence over the default retention rule, even if the custom retention rule is shorter than the default retention rule. However, a shorter collaborator custom rule can’t override a longer owner default rule.
• It is not subject to a hold. When the hold is removed, retention rules take effect.

Even when a retention rule is set to purge data, the background process that removes permanently deleted or expired data from Google systems keeps data available to Vault for approximately 30 days before it is fully purged.

Email messages

• Messages in a user’s Gmail or posted in Google Groups when all retention rules expire are removed from the user’s view (this process can take hours to days). Messages remain available to Vault administrators for approximately 30 more days, during which you can search for, export, or place holds on them. After 30 days, you can no longer retrieve these messages.

• Messages deleted by users or group managers less than 30 days before retention coverage expires are kept until necessary to meet the maximum of 30 days. For example, if a user deletes messages and empties them from trash 20 days before the retention coverage expires, you can search for them in Vault for another 10 days. After that time, you can no longer retrieve them.

• Gmail messages that were deleted more than 30 days before the retention coverage expires are immediately purged at the end of the retention period, and you can’t retrieve them.

For examples of how retention rules work in Gmail, go to Example Gmail retention rules and their effect.

Items in Drive

• Items and sites in a user's Drive can take up to 15 days to be removed from Drive after all retention rules expire. If an item is removed from Drive and is not covered by retention rules or holds, it is immediately unavailable to Vault. If files were removed fewer than 25 days ago, an admin might be able to retrieve the files.
• Items and sites deleted by users and emptied from the trash are immediately unavailable to Vault, if there’s no retention rule or hold to extend their availability. If files were removed fewer than 25 days ago, an admin might be able to retrieve the files.

Chat messages

• Chat messages are kept for 30 more days after a user or a retention rule removes them from a conversation or a space. The purge process begins on day 30 and can take several more days to complete depending on the number of messages being purged.

Calendar events

• Calendar events are kept for 30 days after a user or a retention rule removes the event. Events are searchable and exportable in Vault.

Voice data

• Voice text messages, voicemails and their transcripts, and call logs are purged up to 30 days after retention coverage expires, and you can’t retrieve them.

Use caution when modifying existing retention rules. Services can immediately purge unprotected data that users deleted over 30 days ago.

Child organizational units inherit custom retention rules from their parent organizational unit.

These inherited custom rules apply to all child organizational units, even if the child organizational unit is created after the custom retention rule was set up.

For example:

example.com is the root organizational unit and has a default retention of 2 years for Gmail.

example.com_US has a custom retention rule of 11 years for Gmail. This rule is applied as the primary rule.

example.com_US\Employees is a child organization unit and inherits the custom retention rule of 11 years from its parent organizational unit (example.com_US). The custom rule is applied as the primary rule. This rule is applied even if example.com_US\Employees is created after the custom retention rule is set up for example.com_US.