Google Vault offers retention and eDiscovery for G Suite. Vault is used to retain, hold, search, and export data in support of your organization’s retention and eDiscovery needs. 

Vault is included with G Suite enterprise and business licenses, or you can buy Vault licenses individually for users that have a G Suite basic license.

Vault supports:

• Gmail messages

• Google Groups

• Files in Google Drive

• Conversations in Hangouts Chat with history turned on.

• Recordings in Hangouts Meet

G Suite customers can use Vault for:

• Retention—Aid in the management of Gmail messages and Drive data by specifying how long data should be retained before deletion, in accordance with Library of Virginia schedules.

• Legal holds—Place holds on users to preserve their data indefinitely in order to meet legal or other retention obligations. 

• Search—Search your domain's data by user account, organizational unit, date, or keyword. Vault supports Boolean and wildcard operator searches.

• Export—Export data for additional processing and review. 

• Audit reports—Use Vault audit reports to learn about actions Vault admins have taken during a specified period of time.

Google Vault: Gmail

The types of attachments that are Indexed

Compatible text-based attachment file types (for example, files with .pdf, .xslx, and .docx extensions) are indexed for search. However, Vault doesn't index video, audio, image, and binary content.

How Vault handles large messages and attachments

Vault indexes and searches approximately the first megabyte of a message and any attachments. If Vault finds a match, it searches the rest of the data and makes it available for preview and export. 

Google Vault: Google Drive

How Vault works for Google Drive

Vault searches Drive for all files owned by and directly shared with the users specified in your search query. This includes files in a shared drive that are directly shared with a user, regardless of whether the user is a member of that shared drive. Vault also searches:

• All files owned by and directly shared with the users specified in your search query.

• Shared drives in your organization that have been shared directly with users in your query.

• Files in shared drives that have been shared directly with users in your query.

Searchable files in Vault/Google Drive

You can search for words and phrases that occur in file names and in the contents of files. Vault indexes the first 100 pages of text files and the first 10 pages of text in image PDFs.

You can search text within the following file types:

• Microsoft Word, Excel, and Powerpoint

• .pdf

• .html

• .txt

• .rtf

• OpenOffice™ XML

• Wireless Application Protocol (.wap)

• Wireless Markup Language (.wml)

Previewable files in Vault/Google Drive

You can preview these files:

• Google files such as Docs, Sheets, Slides, and Drawings

• User-uploaded files such as .docx, .pdf, and .xlsx

How linked files are handled in Vault/Google Drive

Users can link a Google file to another Google file. For example, someone writing in a Google Doc can create a chart that's linked to data contained in a Google Sheet. Whenever the spreadsheet is updated, the chart in the document is also updated. When you search files in Drive, Vault returns only the files that match your search criteria. If those files include linked files that fall outside of your query, the linked files aren't included in your results.

Important Links on Google Vault

Organize and create matters

Share matters with other Vault users

Vault Glossary