How Long Do You Have to Keep Email? A Public Records Retention Primer

This email retention schedule primer covers what most public agencies get wrong: they don’t get to decide how long an email lives — a records retention schedule does, and it’s usually set by your state archives or records management division, not by IT. Most agencies default to “keep everything forever” because nobody wants to be the one who deleted the wrong thing. That’s expensive, it’s not compliant either, and it’s avoidable once you know which category a message falls into.

This one-pager gives you the common categories and general timeframes used across U.S. state and local retention schedules, so you know what questions to ask your records officer — not a substitute for asking them.

This is general informational content, not legal advice. Always confirm the exact schedule with your state archives or the National Archives’ general records schedules or your agency’s records officer.

What’s in this email retention schedule

• Common message categories: routine correspondence, transitory messages, policy and decision records, financial and personnel records
• General timeframes used across U.S. state and local schedules for each category
• Questions to bring to your records officer before you set a deletion policy

Where Liberation Technology Services fits

We host business and government email on our own U.S.-based servers — not a resold relay — which means we control the technical side of retention, archiving and legal hold rather than pointing you at a third party’s policy. If your agency is building or revisiting an email retention policy and wants a platform that can actually support it, talk to us.

Email retention schedule: frequently asked questions

Who decides how long we have to keep email?
For public agencies, it’s almost always your state archives or records management division, not IT or legal — they publish the retention schedule your agency is required to follow.

Can we just keep every email forever to be safe?
No — over-retention creates its own compliance and discovery risk, and most retention schedules require you to actually dispose of records once their retention period ends, not just permit deletion.

Does a records retention schedule apply to attachments too?
Yes. An attachment generally follows the retention category of the message and business purpose it’s tied to, not a separate rule based on file type.

How to build an email retention schedule in 2026

An email retention schedule lists each type of message your organization keeps, how long it is kept, and who approves deletion. Start from the schedule your state archives or records office already publishes, then map your mailboxes to those categories.

What to decide before you set deletion rules

A good email retention schedule answers a few plain questions. Staff should be able to find the answers without calling IT.

• Which messages count as official records and which are transitory
• Who can place a legal hold that pauses deletion
• Where archived mail is stored and who can search it
• How departing staff mailboxes are handled

Keeping your email retention schedule workable

Rules only help if staff follow them. Keep the email retention schedule short, train new hires on it, and review it when state rules change. The National Archives publishes general records guidance at archives.gov that many agencies use as a reference point. If you are choosing where mail will live, see Liberation Email, our Hub for Teams option, or contact our team with questions.

This is general guidance, not legal advice. Retention periods differ by state, agency and record type, so confirm your email retention schedule with your records officer or counsel.