In short
Google Workspace email archiving keeps a separate, unalterable copy of every Gmail message sent or received, held under your retention rules and searchable for disputes, audits and requests. With NinjaOne Archiver, Gmail routing rules journal each message to the archive, which adds retention policies, eDiscovery, legal hold and searchable leavers' mail.
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Gmail's Archive button is not an email archive
The word "archive" means three different things in Google Workspace, and only one of them is a compliance archive.
| What it is | What it does | Is it a compliance archive? |
|---|---|---|
| Gmail's Archive button | Google says an archived message no longer appears in your inbox but can still be found under All mail, and returns to the inbox if someone replies | No. The user can still delete it, and it lives in the same mailbox |
| Google Vault | Lets authorised users retain, hold, search and export Google Workspace data. Google itself says "Vault isn't a data archive" | No. It applies rules to live data inside the tenant (see Google Vault vs a separate archive) |
| A journaling archive such as NinjaOne Archiver | Receives a copy of each message as Gmail processes it and stores it immutably, outside the tenant, under your retention policies | Yes. It is built for proof, retention and discovery |
So when someone asks "are our Gmail messages archived?", the honest answer is often "they are in All mail", which is not the same as having a record that users cannot delete and that survives the account being removed. Our guide to what email archiving is sets out the purpose in more detail, and email archiving vs backup explains why an archive is not just another backup.
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How NinjaOne Archiver archives Gmail
NinjaOne Archiver is the archiving plan of NinjaOne SaaS Backup (formerly Dropsuite). NinjaOne describes it as immutable email archiving for Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace. For Google Workspace, archiving has two parts:
- Connection to the tenant. An administrator signs in to the NinjaOne portal with Google Workspace admin credentials and installs NinjaOne's app from the Google Workspace Marketplace. This lets NinjaOne back up existing mail and discover users.
- Journaling through Gmail routing. A routing rule in the Google Admin console delivers an extra copy of each message to the journal address (the Journal ID) NinjaOne gives your organisation. That copy is what goes into the immutable archive.
- Retention policies. A standard policy for everything, with custom policies for departments or individual mailboxes, from 30 days to more than a decade, or with no end date.
- eDiscovery and legal hold. Search, save searches, tag, set alerts and place data on hold, with review roles kept apart from IT administration.
Unlike Microsoft 365, where NinjaOne creates the journal rule for you over remote PowerShell, Google Workspace journaling is set up by hand in the Google Admin console. It needs care, so it is a step we can do with your administrator. The detail is on Google Workspace journaling, and the full sequence is in how NinjaOne Archiver is set up.
Retention, eDiscovery and legal hold for Gmail
Once mail is journaled, it is managed the same way whether it came from Gmail or Exchange Online.
Retention. NinjaOne lets you set retention by user, department or domain. Department Sync assigns users to departments so that, for example, finance mail can be kept longer than general correspondence. Retention is counted from the date a message was received, and items past their retention period are permanently deleted unless they are on hold. Our email retention policy guide helps you decide the periods; the archive then applies them.
eDiscovery. Authorised reviewers can search by email account, date range, sender, recipients (to, cc and bcc) and keywords, combine terms with AND and OR, and search inside attached documents. Searches can be saved, and reviewers can set alerts and tags on the results. See email eDiscovery.
Legal hold. When a dispute, claim or investigation is expected, a hold freezes retention for the data concerned until the hold is removed, so routine deletion cannot remove it. See legal hold.
Roles. The Compliance and Review Officer, Data Protection Officer, Reviewer and Limited Reviewer roles exist only on the Archiver plans. NinjaOne's documentation says IT administrators cannot access any compliance features, which keeps searching people's mail with the people who are entitled to do it.
These features help you meet record-keeping duties such as UK GDPR storage limitation, covered on our email retention and UK GDPR page. They support your policy; they do not make an organisation compliant on their own.
Is Google Workspace email archiving the right fit for you?
We will check it against your systems and requirements and recommend the right option.
Leavers' mail without keeping licences
Leavers are where Google Workspace archiving earns its keep. Google's own Vault overview warns that if you delete a user or a required licence, their data might be irreversibly purged and no longer available to Vault. Google offers Archived User licences as its own way to keep a former employee's data; we mention them for completeness, but we do not supply Google licences.
With a journaling archive, a leaver's mail captured before the account goes is held outside the tenant. In NinjaOne, a mailbox whose account loses its mail licence shows as Inactive. Archived mailboxes cannot be deleted from the portal, only deactivated: no new mail is archived, the existing data stays, only administrators can reach it, and it can be reactivated later. NinjaOne's help centre describes a deactivated-seat allowance of 20 per cent of purchased seats that do not use a licence. We confirm how leavers count towards your seats and retention when we quote.
The order matters: only mail captured before the account is deleted can be kept, so add the leaver step to your offboarding checklist. Read what to do with a former employee's mailbox and deactivated mailboxes in NinjaOne.
Backup and archive in one licence
Because Archiver is a plan of NinjaOne SaaS Backup, the same per-user licence also backs up your Google Workspace data. NinjaOne lists backup of Gmail (inbox, sent items, archived mail and attachments), Google Drive including shared drives, Calendar and Contacts, with point-in-time and item-level restores.
The difference between the two jobs is worth keeping clear:
| SaaS backup (Standard) | With Archiver | |
|---|---|---|
| Email capture | Scheduled backups, which NinjaOne puts at 12 a day | Always-on journaling of every message, plus backup |
| Purpose | Restore lost or deleted data | Keep a provable record and find it again |
| Retention policies | One retention setting | Multiple policies by user, department or domain |
| eDiscovery and review roles | No | Yes |
| Legal hold | No | Yes |
Two things to plan for. The plan applies to every user backed up in the organisation, and NinjaOne says that once Archiver is enabled you cannot revert to the regular SaaS Backup service. The bundles page sets out the differences, and our Cloud Security site covers NinjaOne SaaS Backup for backup on its own.
Where the archive is held and what it costs
NinjaOne runs the archive as a cloud-native service, outside your Google Workspace tenant, with AES-256 encryption, TLS 1.2, multi-factor authentication and role-based access. We confirm where your archive will be held before set-up, so you can record it in your data protection documentation.
Storage is not capped per organisation; NinjaOne's fair use policy ties an allowance to each paid seat, assessed across the whole customer. We check the fit against your mail volumes when we quote.
Pricing depends on the bundle, the number of users and the term, so ask us for a quote. We archive existing Google Workspace tenants only: your Google subscription stays exactly as it is, and the archive sits alongside it.
How Forever Systems helps
We supply NinjaOne Archiver for Google Workspace and can set it up with you:
- Agree what you need to keep, for how long and why, and who needs to search it
- Recommend the right bundle and check the storage fit and archive location
- Connect your Google Workspace tenant and set up the Gmail routing rules for everyone, or for a Google group if you only archive some users
- Create retention policies, Department Sync and review roles that match your policy
- Plan leavers and any older mail, exported as PST or zipped EML files, that you want to bring in (see archive migration)
- Show your administrators where to check that journaling is working
Contact us to talk about archiving your Google Workspace email.
Explore Google Workspace
How Forever Systems helps with email archiving
We are an independent UK IT and cyber security provider. We supply NinjaOne SaaS Backup with Archiver for organisations on Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace, and help you get the archive set up, the policies right and the people who need it confident using it.
- Scoping: we look at your mailboxes, leavers, legacy archives and record-keeping obligations, and what your Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace plan already includes, before suggesting anything new
- Set-up: we can configure journaling for Exchange Online or Google Workspace, connect the archive and check that mail is arriving
- Retention and legal hold: we help you turn your email retention policy into archive rules, and show your compliance or HR lead how to search, hold and export
- Leavers and legacy archives: we can help you plan how former employees' mail and older archives are brought across, with the approach confirmed at quote
- Backup alongside the archive: the same NinjaOne per-user licence also covers backup of your Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace data, so recovery and record-keeping are planned together
We work with businesses, schools, charities and public sector organisations. If you also need wider protection, see our independent cloud security guides.
Frequently asked questions
Does Gmail's Archive button archive email for compliance?
No. Google says an archived message is removed from the inbox and can still be found under All mail, and it returns to the inbox if someone replies. It stays in the same mailbox and the user can delete it, so it is not a compliance archive.
Is Google Vault an email archive?
Google says "Vault isn't a data archive". Vault applies retention rules and holds to live Google Workspace data and lets authorised users search and export it. A separate journaling archive keeps its own immutable copy outside the tenant.
Can NinjaOne Archiver archive Gmail?
Yes. NinjaOne Archiver archives Google Workspace mail as well as Microsoft 365. For Google Workspace, journaling is set up manually with Gmail routing rules in the Google Admin console, and we can do that with your administrator.
Can we archive only some Google Workspace users?
Yes. NinjaOne's guide uses a Google group with separate routing rules for received and sent mail, so only members of the group are journaled. Group membership can be changed later without rewriting the rules.
Do you sell Google Workspace or Vault licences?
No. We archive the mail of existing Google Workspace tenants with NinjaOne Archiver. Your Google subscription stays with your current provider.
How much does Google Workspace email archiving cost?
NinjaOne Archiver is licensed per user, in bundles with backup included. The price depends on the bundle, user numbers and term, so ask us for a quote.
Still have a question about Google Workspace email archiving?
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