UF Email Retention Policy enforcement starts July 1, 2022

What is happening?

  •  The UF email retention policy, in place since February 2016, will start applying to *our* mailboxes, starting July 1, 2022.
  •  This will purge email older than 3 years from your Inbox and Sent Items folders.
  • This will apply to *all* UF email boxes, including shared mailboxes. Please think about shared lab or study emails you may be using.

What do you need to do?

Email older than 3 years in your UF Inbox or Sent Items folders that you need or want to keep must be moved to a different folder in your mailbox.
It is worth noting that emails falling within the FERPA or HIPAA rules have longer retention requirements: 5 years for FERPA and 6 for HIPAA.

Affected mail folder
The Inbox, subfolders of the Inbox, and Sent Items are impacted by the automatic retention rules
Unaffected Folder
Mailbox folders outside the Inbox or Sent Items folders are not impacted by the automatic retention rules

Strategy, or how do I move all this email?

Start soon, especially if you have a long email history at UF or have a large quantity of email. Focus on email in your Inbox, but don’t neglect your Sent Items. Try to get down to a 2 year horizon so you have a healthy cushion and won’t have to constantly be cleaning up.

Use Outlook on a UF desktop to do this work, if you can. Mobile email clients often only display a few months of email, so you might not see the whole picture if you try to do this on your phone. Wi-Fi connections can sometimes be less stable, and wired connections are generally faster, which will help. Step-by-step instructions for making mailbox folders in Outlook are available at: https://www.mail.ufl.edu/managing-email/retain-your-email/

If you have subfolders nested inside your Inbox, you can drag them out without too much work.

Outlook Drag folder
Drag folders in Outlook
Outlook Web Drag Folder
Drag folders in Outlook Web

If you are struggling, make annual folders for received and sent messages (In-2012, In-2013, Sent-2012, Sent-2013, etc.) and move a few months of email at a time into their respective folders. It is tempting to try moving an entire year at once but it is better to move smaller chunks at a time. Too much email shifting around can overwhelm Outlook and could end up taking even longer. Start with a month, or possibly two, and see how it goes. Don’t forget your Sent Items.

Why is this happening now?

The policy was unenforced on mailboxes within UFHealth. As of July 1, 2022, the retention policy will be in effect across all of UF.

Where can you get help?

  1. PHHP IT is available to help you get started. You can reach us via support@phhp.ufl.edu, or 352-273-6200.
  2. UF Health IT can assist you as well: Visit the UFHealth IT portal, log in, and complete a “New Service Request” (right side).
  3. The UF Helpdesk can also help: (352-392-HELP/4357), visit (132 Hub), or you can submit a ticket.

More information:

UF Policy on Email as Public Records
UF Email Retention Policy
UF Email Retention FAQ
UF Records Retention Schedules 

PHHP IT Information

Hours: 7:30am – 5pm Monday – Friday

Phone: 352.273.6200

Email: support@phhp.ufl.edu

If you have an issue with any PHHP website, please send an email to webmaster@phhp.ufl.edu.

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