How to Set up a Custom Retention Rule for Gmail Data in Google Vault

Quick and easy-to-follow guide for Google Workspace administrators

Retain Google Workspace email data for as long as you need to

By following the steps below, you can ensure that you will retain your organization’s email data for as long as you need to, regardless of any circumstances.

The priority of custom retention rules

Custom retention rules in Google Vault will always override default retention rules because they have higher priority.
However, they have lower priority than holds.

How to set up a Google Vault retention rule for Gmail emails step-by-step with images

Step 1

To create a custom retention rule for Gmail data, open Vault at https://vault.google.com and click Retention.

Step 2

Select the CUSTOM RULES tab on top and then click the Create button.

Step 3

Click the drop-down to choose a service and select Gmail.

Step 4

Click CONTINUE.

Step 5

Now select the Organizational unit. Your retention rule will apply to all users in the OU you select.

Step 6

The rule will apply to the OU you select, as well as all of its sub-OUs.

When applied to the top-level OU, all other OUs will also have the rule applied to them so that way you are essentially applying it to all users in your account.

Step 7

Having selected an OU, click CONTINUE.

Step 8

Next, you get to specify the date range and your conditions for the retention in the Terms field.

All emails sent or received within the time frame you select will have the retention rule applied to them.

You can use the following search operators in the Terms field to narrow down the scope of your rule https://support.google.com/vault/answer/2474474.

(Our article on this is coming soon!)

If you leave it blank, the rule will be applied to all email messages – both sent and received.

For example, if you only want to apply the rule to emails sent to a specific user, you can type to:[email protected] in the Terms field.

Click CONTINUE.

Step 9

Choose how long to retain Gmail emails

On the Duration and action screen, choose how long to keep data matched by the conditions you specified in your retention rule.

You can keep it Indefinitely, which means that you will store data in Vault as long as you have Vault and the users whose emails are affected by the rule have a Vault license assigned. Note that if you delete a user, this also deletes their data from Vault. Make sure to search and export user data before deleting users, as shown here.

You can also select the Retention period option, which allows you to keep data for a specific time frame. Click CREATE.

Step 10

If you selected the Retention period option, you must now select a number of Days, and then you must also choose the Action after the expiration of the number of days you specify.

The retention period starts when emails are sent or received.

Purge only permanently deleted messages means that you will lose all messages that users have removed from their Trash folder in Gmail after the retention period passes.

Purge messages from Gmail mailboxes and permanently deleted messages. This rule doesn’t affect drafts. – this means that after the retention period passes, the rule will purge all emails (excluding drafts) from users’ Gmail and Vault.

Purge messages from Gmail mailboxes and permanently deleted messages. This rule purges drafts. – this means that after the retention period passes, the rule will purge all emails and drafts from users’ Gmail and Vault.

Click CREATE.

Step 11

Check the boxes to confirm that you are aware that:

-Custom rules and holds still apply and have higher priority than the default retention rule.

-After expiration, the rule purges emails that you may not be able to recover.

Click ACCEPT.

Step 12

The custom retention rule now appears under the CUSTOM RULES tab when you select Retention in Google Vault.

Step 13

To remove a custom retention rule, hover over it and click Delete, which appears on the right.

Step 14

Important: any data retained by this rule will get deleted if not included in another retention rule or hold.

If you’re ok with making this change, click DELETE.

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Set Up Your Google Workspace Account’s Default Retention Rules

The default retention rules have a lower priority than custom retention rules.

Add Custom Retention Rules for Email Data

Create a custom retention rule to archive Gmail data.

Add Custom Retention Rules for Google Drive and Shared Drive Data

Create a custom retention rule to archive Google Drive data.

Add Custom Retention Rules for Google Groups Data

Create a custom retention rule to archive Google Groups data.

What Are Retention Rules and Holds in Google Vault

Retention rules and holds are ways to ensure that Vault will archive Google Workspace data.

Manage Google Meet and Google Sites Retention Settings in Google Vault

Specify if Meet video recordings and Google Sites files will be affected by your Drive retention rules.

Add Custom Retention Rules for Google Chat Data

Create a custom retention rule to archive Google Chat data.

Add Custom Retention Rules for Google Meet Data

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Add Custom Retention Rules for Google Sites Data

Create a custom retention rule to archive Google Sites data.

Place a Gmail Data Hold

Place a hold on Gmail data.

Place a Google Drive Data Hold

Place a hold on Google Drive data.

Place a Google Groups Data Hold

Place a hold on Google Groups data.

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