If I delete an email from my Outlook inbox, does that actually delete the official federal record under Capstone?

Short answer: usually no. Under a Capstone approach, deleting a message from your live Outlook inbox typically does not destroy the official federal record, because the record is preserved separately from your day-to-day mailbox. But the details matter, and “usually” is not “always.”

What Capstone actually does

Capstone is a role-based way of managing email as records. Instead of asking each person to sort every message into a file plan, an agency designates certain accounts—generally those of senior officials and key decision-making roles—whose email is captured and retained as permanent records. Most other accounts are managed on a temporary retention schedule.

The key point is where the official copy lives. In a properly implemented program, email is captured into a managed records repository or preserved through a journaling/capture process at or near the time it is sent or received. That captured copy—not the convenience copy sitting in your inbox—is the record the agency relies on to meet its legal obligations.

So what happens when you hit delete?

• If your account is in scope and email has already been captured into the records system, deleting your personal copy in Outlook generally removes only your working copy. The retained official record remains.
• If capture happens on a schedule and a message is deleted before it is swept in, you may be destroying the only copy—a real risk.
• Account-level retention also matters. When a designated official leaves, their entire account is typically preserved per the schedule regardless of housekeeping deletions made along the way.

The important caveats

Deleting records still carries obligations and risks no technical safety net erases:

• Legal holds and litigation. If a message is subject to a hold, FOIA request, or investigation, you must not delete it—even if a backup exists.
• Unauthorized destruction. Federal records may only be destroyed under an approved disposition authority. Routinely purging records ahead of schedule can violate records laws.
• Implementation gaps. Capstone protects you only to the extent it is configured correctly and capture is actually working.

The safe habit: treat email as a record, follow your agency’s retention schedule, and never delete anything under hold. To learn more, see the federal records topic hub.