How do I issue a litigation hold for data stored in cloud and SaaS apps like Google Workspace or Salesforce?

A litigation hold is your duty to preserve potentially relevant information once litigation is reasonably anticipated. That duty does not change because the data lives in a cloud or SaaS application instead of on-premises systems. What changes is how you carry it out: you rarely control the underlying infrastructure, and each platform exposes different preservation features, retention settings, and administrative access.

Confirm the duty and scope

Identify the trigger event and the types of data potentially relevant to the matter. Cloud and SaaS environments often hold far more than email: documents, chat and messaging threads, calendars, version histories, audit logs, CRM records, and metadata. Map where this content resides, who the custodians are, and which applications store it before you act.

Issue and document the hold

Send a written hold notice to custodians and to the people who administer each affected system. Clearly state what must be preserved and instruct recipients not to delete, alter, or move data. Suspend any automatic deletion or retention policies that could destroy relevant content while the hold is in effect. Keep records of who was notified, when, and how you confirmed compliance.

Apply technical preservation in each platform

Most enterprise cloud and SaaS tools offer built-in preservation, legal hold, or retention controls at the administrative level. These can preserve content in place even if a user attempts to delete it. Work with IT and your administrators to:

• Enable the platform’s native preservation or hold feature for the relevant custodians and data types.
• Account for content that auto-expires, such as ephemeral messages or short-retention logs.
• Verify the hold is actually working and re-check periodically, since vendors change features over time.

Watch the contract and jurisdiction

Review your service agreements: data ownership, export options, and the provider’s own retention defaults all affect your ability to preserve and later produce information. Reasonable, proportional, good-faith preservation efforts are the standard under the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, but obligations differ across state courts and other countries, so confirm what applies to your matter.

Release the hold only through a documented process once the obligation ends.

For broader context, see our e-discovery topic hub. When in doubt, consult qualified legal counsel for your jurisdiction.