What should we do if our email archiving vendor's contract is ending and they are holding years of our records?

A vendor contract ending is one of the highest-risk moments for any records program. The organization, not the vendor, remains the legal custodian and owner of those records. Your goal is to recover complete, usable, authentic records before access is lost. Treat this as a planned migration, not an emergency.

Start With the Contract

Review the agreement immediately for exit, data-return, and data-destruction clauses. Pay close attention to:

• Return and export rights — what format the data will be provided in and whether export fees apply.
• Transition or post-termination access window — how long you can still reach the system after the term ends.
• Destruction obligations — when and how the vendor must delete your data, and whether you can suspend that deletion.

If a legal hold or active litigation, audit, or investigation applies, notify the vendor in writing to halt any scheduled deletion.

Get the Records Out Completely

Request a full export of both the email content and its metadata — sender, recipients, dates, message IDs, attachments, and any retention or classification tags. Records without metadata lose much of their evidential value.

• Insist on open, non-proprietary formats where possible (for example, standard mail or container formats rather than vendor-only databases).
• Capture audit logs and indexes so you can prove completeness and authenticity.
• Document the chain of custody for the transfer so the records remain defensible.

Validate, Then Decide What to Keep

After export, verify the data before letting the contract lapse:

• Confirm record counts, date ranges, and that attachments and threads are intact.
• Test that messages are readable and searchable in your new environment.
• Apply your retention schedule — migrate what still has retention or legal value, and dispose of eligible records under a documented, authorized process.

Plan the Destination

Decide where the records will live next: a successor archive, an in-house repository, or another managed service. Migrating records in digital environments is most reliable when guided by recognized practices for authenticity, integrity, and usability over time.

For related guidance, see our email and messaging topic hub.

The lasting lesson: build exit and portability requirements into every recordkeeping contract from the start, so the next transition is routine rather than risky.