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Mail

Afi Exchange mail backup view resembles native Exchange web interface with email folders hierarchy and email preview. You can navigate across email folders, sort emails under a folder by date or other criteria, and select specific folders or individual emails for export or recovery.

By default, Exchange mail backup includes primary and In-place (Online) Archive mailboxes. Optionally, Recoverable Items Exchange folders can be included in backup in SLA policy settings on the Service → Settings → SLA tab.

Browse

By default, email browse shows email metadata (From, To, Subject, CC, BCC, etc.), list of attachments, and email body. Email attachments can be downloaded locally by clicking on the corresponding attachment label.

In-place (Online) Archive mailbox folders as well as Recoverable Items folders are shown on the Mail tab inside the backup browse view under the corresponding sections below the primary mailbox folders:

Restrict email content preview

You can restrict access to email content for service administrators, access group operators, or even end-users on the Service → Settings → Access groups tab by disabling the Preview email and chats content access permission. Here is an example of email browse view when email content preview is restricted:

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Afi provides a configuration option to disable content preview during email and chat browse by default and enable it by click during data browse. Browse events without and with enabled content preview are audited and content preview status is included in the audit events details. Please contact the Afi Support to enable the feature.

Afi offers comprehensive search capabilities which allow you to easily locate emails matching a specified query, select individual emails from search results for export and recovery, or export all emails matching a query in supported export formats (PST, MBOX, EML).

To search across all email fields, enter one or more terms in the search box. Afi finds emails containing all the terms in their body or fields such as To, From, Subject, and attachment names.

This example searches for Northwind across a user’s mailbox:

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When email content preview is restricted, search is performed across email metadata such as To, From, Subject, attachment names, etc., but email body content is ignored.

To search a specific field, open Filter and select it from the list.

Search with the Filter menu open

You can also limit the search to a time range or to emails visible in the currently selected backup snapshot.

This example uses Filter → From to find messages from megan.bowen@demo.afi.ai. The next screenshot shows the matching messages:

A user can select specific emails for export or recovery manually from search results or export all emails matching a search query by clicking on the Download button and choosing the Download search results option:

Export

A user can export a whole mailbox or selected emails/email folders by clicking on the Download button and choosing an export format. When selecting a folder with nested sub folders for export, the resulting export will contain all emails under the selected folder as well as all its sub folders.

Email data can be exported in the following most common industry formats:

  • PST (Personal Storage Table) format best suited for Outlook email client
  • MBOX format compatible with Mac Mail, Thunderbird and other third-party email clients
  • EML format best suited for exporting individual emails

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When export is performed from the backup browse context, email folder structure is preserved for all formats (PST, MBOX or EML).

When export is performed from the search context (export from search results), email folder structure is preserved only for PST.

Using the PST export format, you can download Mail, Contacts, Calendar, and Tasks data together in a single export:

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When the Download all (Mail) export option is selected, only primary mailbox data is included in the export. To export In-Place (Online) Archive or Recoverable Items data, please select the corresponding folders for export manually.

An export performed from the backup browse context (not search results export) contains only the following emails which are present in the selected backup snapshot (emails which were present in the mailbox during the time of the corresponding backup).

If you want to export all emails sent/received in a mailbox, regardless of a backup snapshot where they are present (including emails deleted in one of the historical backup snapshots), you can run a search query with the Received time filter starting at some early date (for example, 1 Jan 2000 as on the screenshot below) and export the matching emails from the search results (see the Download search results option in the Download dialog):

Recovery

With Afi a user can restore selected emails, email folders, or a whole mailbox to the same or another user mailbox. The following recovery modes are available:

  • Recover to a separate folder - restore selected data under a specified folder in the restore destination mailbox. You can specify your own folder name or proceed with a system-generated one (Restored by AFI/<date>).
  • Overwrite existing content - restore selected data in place. This recovery mode should be used with caution as it will replace items that already exist in the restore destination mailbox in case of a conflict. Any other existing items that don't conflict with the data being restored are preserved upon restore.

Email recovery preserves folder hierarchy by recreating it under a restore destination folder (in case of the Recover to a separate folder restore mode) or by reconstructing it in a restore destination mailbox. When a folder with sub folders is selected for a recovery, the service recursively restores all emails under this folder and its sub folders, recreating the original folder hierarchy.

Upon a recovery Afi restores original email metadata, such as To, From, CC, BCC, subject, sent date, read/unread flag, as well as email body and attachments.

This example selects Operations under Work, including its Sales subfolder, for recovery.

In Outlook, the restored folders appear under Restored by AFI → 2024-05-04 22:34:38 → Work, with Sales inside Operations:

Email data inside In-Place (Online) Archive mailbox and Recoverable Items folders backup can't be restored in-place (in overwrite mode) at the moment and can only be restored under a separate folder inside a primary mailbox of a restore destination user.

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When the Recover full account (Mail) recovery option is selected, only primary mailbox data is included in the recovery. To recover In-Place (Online) Archive or Recoverable Items data, please select the corresponding folders for recovery manually.