Email Archiving software for Microsoft 365

Frequently asked questions

• What does Acronis Email Archiving do?

  Acronis Email Archiving preserves Microsoft 365 business communications in a secure, searchable cloud archive. It combines continuous email capture, flexible retention, legal hold and powerful search to simplify compliance and eDiscovery. Keep important records accessible for audits, investigations and everyday information requests, with archiving managed centrally, alongside cybersecurity, data protection and management on the Acronis Cyber platform.

• How does Acronis capture and organize email?

  Acronis continuously adds new messages to the archive as they are sent or received. Each mailbox archive organizes email into Incoming and Outgoing folders, with messages displayed chronologically. Search queries and previews help you locate relevant communications without first recovering them, reducing the effort involved in finding historical email.

• Which email platforms and content does Acronis support?

  Acronis Email Archiving is designed for Microsoft 365. The service archives sent and received email, with attachments available for download. Draft messages and items in a mailbox’s Archive folder are excluded from the documented archiving scope. Individual messages are subject to a 150 MB limit. Review the service documentation when planning coverage or migration.

• How does Acronis support regulatory compliance?

  Acronis brings retention policies, legal hold, encryption and exportable audit logs together to help organizations manage email records in line with their obligations. Tailor retention to your industry, preserve relevant communications and demonstrate how archived records were handled. These controls support compliance programs involving regulations such as GDPR and HIPAA; configure them around your organization’s specific requirements.

• How long does Acronis retain archived email?

  Acronis retains archived email indefinitely by default. You can configure retention rules to delete messages automatically after the required period, helping align storage with business policies and records management obligations. Rules can target messages by criteria such as sender, recipient or subject. Apply legal hold when relevant messages must remain available beyond normal retention.

• How does legal hold protect important messages?

  Legal hold preserves matching messages regardless of the archive’s normal retention rules. Acronis lets you target relevant communications using criteria such as sender, recipient or words in the subject. During the hold period, those messages cannot be deleted by retention rules, helping you preserve evidence for a dispute, audit or investigation.

• Can I find and retrieve email for legal requests?

  Yes. Use full-text and advanced search queries to identify relevant communications, then preview messages before recovery. Save useful queries for repeat requests. Acronis supports recovery of selected messages, Incoming or Outgoing folders, and entire archived mailboxes to the original or another mailbox. Download attachments and export audit logs to support your review and evidence-handling process.

• Can archived emails be changed or manually deleted?

  Archived messages cannot be modified or manually deleted; retention rules control when they expire. Acronis immutable storage adds protection for deleted archives according to the tenant’s configured immutability period. Together with legal hold and audit logs, these controls help defend retained records against accidental loss or malicious deletion while supporting traceability.

• How does Acronis protect archive access and sensitive email?

  Acronis encrypts the archive with AES-256 and restricts access to authorized users according to their access level. An audit trail records activity, helping administrators review how the archive is used. These safeguards support controlled handling of sensitive business communications and give IT and compliance teams greater visibility into access and actions.

• How does Acronis Email Archiving differ from Microsoft 365 backup?

  Email archiving preserves searchable communications for long-term retention, compliance and legal readiness. Backup protects recoverable copies of Microsoft 365 data against loss or disruption. Acronis brings both into one protection platform, so you can preserve email evidence and recover operational data. Use them together when your organization needs both reliable recovery and a controlled record of business communications.

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• Why use Acronis instead of the Outlook Archive folder?

  Outlook’s Archive folder helps organize messages within a mailbox. Acronis provides a separate cloud archive with centralized search, retention policies, legal hold and audit visibility. For organizations evaluating Office 365 email archiving solutions, this creates a consistent way to preserve and find business records. Microsoft 365 also offers native compliance capabilities, which vary by licensing and configuration.

• Can internal IT teams use Acronis Email Archiving without deploying hardware?

  Yes. Organizations can use Email Archiving through Acronis Cyber Protect as a cloud-hosted, fully maintained service. There is no dedicated archiving hardware to install or maintain. Manage email retention alongside your wider Acronis data protection, helping IT teams simplify administration and respond to compliance or legal requests without adding a separate archiving vendor.

• Can MSPs deliver Acronis Email Archiving to clients?

  Yes. Acronis Cyber Platform (formerly Acronis Cyber Protect Cloud) provides multitenant management for delivering email archiving across customer environments. Add retention and eDiscovery capabilities to your Microsoft 365 services, tailor policies to client needs and create a recurring revenue opportunity. The intuitive console and fully maintained cloud service help reduce deployment effort and ongoing management overhead as your client base grows.

• How does Email Archiving fit into Acronis Protected 365?

  Email Archiving is part of Acronis Protected 365, adding retention and legal readiness to the most complete Microsoft 365 protection. Through Acronis Cyber Platform (formerly Acronis Cyber Protect Cloud), it works alongside backup and recovery, email and collaboration security, security posture management, security awareness training and XDR integration. This native integration helps close protection gaps and reduce the complexity of managing separate tools.

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• How does Acronis support data residency requirements?

  Acronis operates a global network of more than 50 data centers to support data sovereignty and regional requirements. When planning your deployment, discuss the available email archiving locations with Acronis or your service provider and select a suitable service location. This helps align the archive with your organization’s data residency policies and customer commitments.

• How do I get pricing and start a trial?

  Choose the buying route that fits your organization. MSPs can request pricing for Email Archiving through Acronis Cyber Platform (formerly Acronis Cyber Protect Cloud); internal IT teams can review business purchasing options for Acronis Cyber Protect. Talk to sales about licensed users, subscription terms, included storage and the services you need, or use the relevant trial link to get started.