Search retained email in the archive

Run a search

• Superadmins need a support session before searching the archive.
• Open Archive & legal holds and use Search retained email. Choose all mailboxes or one mailbox, enter search words, and optionally add From and To dates.
• Search covers the subject, sender, folder and indexed message text. Every query word must appear somewhere in those fields or the message text.

Use whole words for message text

• Message text matches whole words only: "invoice" can match "invoice", but "invoic" cannot. Body search does not support partial words, phrases or fuzzy matching.
• The whole-word rule applies to message text; subject, sender and folder can also match part of a word. Attachments are not searched.

Deleted messages and holds

• Messages later deleted from a mailbox are included while they remain within retention or on hold. A legal hold stops retention expiry for the organization or mailbox until the hold is released with a recorded reason.
• The archive keeps what each backup run saw. A message received and deleted between backup runs may not have been captured.

If you cannot find a message

• Message text becomes searchable after it has been indexed. The search page shows when no stored text is indexed yet or indexing is still in progress.
• If the page says only the most recent 20,000 messages were scanned, add a date range to search older mail. If it shows the first 200 matches, narrow your search.

Audit trail

• Every archive search is recorded in the audit trail.

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