Three actions teams confuse
| Action | Who | Duration | What it is for | What it does not do |
|---|
| Filing in a folder | The user | As long as the user keeps the message | Organizing, finding | Protecting against deletion |
| Dumpster folder | The user | Short | Recovering a message deleted by mistake | Retaining over time |
| Legal archiving (option) | Scoped with Klytic | As scoped in the quote | Retaining messages so they can be produced | Replacing the recovery backup |
Filing: organizing the mailbox
A message filed in a “Clients 2025” folder stays in the mailbox. It counts toward the mailbox’s storage space, 5 GB in Standard, 15 GB in Pro, expandable on request. It can be found through search, moved, and deleted by the user.
- File by client, by matter or by year, with folders and filters that automatically sort incoming mail.
- For a team, prefer a shared mailbox or shared folders to copies scattered across each mailbox.
- Avoid Outlook local archives. Outlook’s archiving feature moves messages into a file on the computer: they leave the server, and therefore the Klytic backups. If the computer is lost, so are they.
If a mailbox is nearing its limit, increase the space or switch the mailbox to Pro rather than moving the history onto a computer.
The dumpster folder: recovering, not retaining
A deleted message, even after the trash has been emptied, goes through the dumpster folder. Users can find it there themselves for a limited time and put it back in a folder. It is a safety net against handling errors, not a place for retention. The steps are described in restoring a message or a mailbox.
Legal archiving: an option to be scoped
Legal archiving is available as an option for the Standard and Pro plans. It is not a button each user turns on: it is a service set up with Klytic, to retain messages separately so that they can be produced, with an evidential value that depends on the scope defined in the quote.
Before requesting it, prepare answers to these questions:
- Scope. All mailboxes, certain functions (management, accounting, purchasing), or certain shared mailboxes?
- Duration. How long to retain, and for what reason: legal obligation, contract, risk of litigation?
- Access. Who will be able to search the archives and extract a message: management, legal, an auditor?
- History. Should messages already in the mailboxes be brought in, or only those arriving after setup? Ask Klytic this question explicitly.
- Exit. In what form are the archives returned at the end of the contract?
Fine-tuning is done with Klytic, at the quote stage.
Example. A 40-person engineering firm (hypothetical case) must be able to produce, in the event of a dispute over a project, its exchanges with clients and subcontractors. It requests legal archiving for the project managers’ mailboxes and for the shared projects@ mailbox, restricts archive search to management, and sets the duration with its legal advisor. The other mailboxes stay on the 30-day backup and the dumpster folder.
What archiving does not replace
- The recovery backup. Klytic backups, hourly and kept for 30 days, are used to return a mailbox or a message to a past state. Archiving is not for that, and vice versa. See restoring a message or a mailbox.
- A retention policy. Deciding how long to keep what is a matter for a written company rule, not an email setting. The method is the same as for documents: retaining and archiving documents.
- Extra storage space. Legal archiving is not a way to empty a full mailbox.
When an employee leaves
If the mailbox of a departing person must be retained, archiving is decided while the account is still under control: before deleting the mailbox, before turning it into an alias, and within the 30-day backup window if messages have been erased. The full procedure is in the mailbox of a departing employee.
Frequently asked questions
Is legal archiving included in Klytic Mail?
No, it is an option, available in both Standard and Pro. Details of the offering are on the Klytic Mail page.
How long should emails be kept?
There is no single period. It depends on the nature of the messages and your obligations. See retaining and archiving documents.
Can a user delete a message filed in a folder?
Yes. Filing is not retaining. Only legal archiving, depending on how it is scoped, protects messages from deletion.
Can the 30-day backup serve as an archive?
No. It is for going back in time. The reason is explained in backup, deletion and continuity.
