Someone has left and you need something they had - an email thread with a supplier, a quote, a spreadsheet that only ever lived in their documents. This is a normal request and there are straightforward ways to handle it. What matters is who asks, and how quickly.

The three ways to get to it

1. Delegated access. We give a named current employee permission to open the old mailbox from inside their own Outlook or Gmail. Nothing moves, nothing is copied, and the access can be removed again just as easily. This is the best option when someone needs to look things up over the following weeks - a manager picking up the customers, for example.
2. Converting the mailbox to a shared mailbox. The account stops being a person and becomes a mailbox that several people can watch, still receiving anything sent to the old address. Good when the address itself needs to keep working - a salesperson's address that customers still reply to. In most setups a shared mailbox does not need a paid licence, so this also removes the ongoing cost.
3. An export. We take a copy of the mailbox, or of their files, and hand it over as a file you keep. Right when the business needs a permanent record - a dispute, an audit, or simply closing the file on a role - but it is a snapshot, not living access. Once exported it is your copy to store safely.

Files work the same way. Anything in the shared drives is already yours and needs nothing from us. Anything in the person's own OneDrive or My Drive can be transferred to a manager or moved into a shared folder, and this is worth doing before the account is closed out - personal document areas are where the important spreadsheet usually turns out to be.

Who has to ask

We need the request from someone authorised in your business - a director, an owner, or a person you have already nominated to us as an authorised contact. We will not open a former employee's mailbox on the say-so of a colleague, however senior they sound, and we will not do it on a request that arrives from outside your business.

This is not us being difficult. It is the same protection that stops someone doing it to your mailbox. If you are not sure who is on your authorised list, ask us and we will tell you, and you can change it whenever you like.

If the person who has left was your only authorised contact - which happens - we will work through it with you, but expect us to ask for proof of who runs the business before we hand anything over.

The time limits are real

If the account still exists, even blocked and unused, everything above is easy and nothing is lost.

If the account has been deleted, there is a recovery window - typically measured in weeks rather than months, and it varies by platform. Inside the window we can usually restore the account and then take what you need. Past it, the mailbox is gone and no amount of escalation brings it back. There is no hidden copy at the provider.

So if a mailbox has been deleted and you think you might need something from it, tell us today rather than at the end of the month. If you are not certain of the deletion date, tell us anyway and we will check what state it is in. We will always give you a straight answer about whether something is recoverable.

This is also why the offboarding article says to block accounts rather than delete them. Two months of an unused licence is cheap insurance against exactly this situation.

If the request is contentious

Sometimes the reason for wanting the mailbox is a dispute with the person who left. We will still act on a properly authorised request from the business, and we do not need to know the background.

What we cannot do is advise you on whether you should. Employers have obligations around employee records and privacy, and they vary with the circumstances. If there is any tension in the situation, check your own position - with your employment adviser or lawyer - before you go looking. We are not the right people to ask about that, and we would rather say so than guess.

Still stuck?

Log a ticket at portal.yougrowit.com.au or email support@yougrowit.com.au. If it is stopping you working right now, call 03 9028 4358.

Support hours are Monday to Friday, 8:30am to 5:30pm Melbourne time, excluding Victorian public holidays.

Not a client yet?

This help centre is free to read and we would rather you fixed it yourself. If it has not worked, or you would rather someone just dealt with it:

The first call is free. Tell us what’s happening and we’ll tell you what we think it is, what fixing it involves, and what it’ll cost — before anything is charged. If it turns out to be a five-minute thing, we’ll usually just sort it out on the call.

Call 03 9028 4358 or email admin@yougrowit.com.au. Melbourne small businesses, Monday to Friday 8:30am–5:30pm. We don’t do home computers.