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Importing Historical Emails

This article explains how to prepare historical email files for import into MCO eComms when your organization is moving messages from a prior archive or email storage system.

Overview

Email is usually journaled to MCO eComms for archival and surveillance. In some cases, your organization may need to import historical email messages, such as when moving from a prior archiving service.

Historical email import is completed by providing MCO with email files in a supported format. User mapping should be configured before import so newly imported messages can be associated with the correct users and policies.

Supported file formats

MCO can process the following file formats for standard historical email imports:

Format

Description

EML

Individual email message files.

PST

Microsoft Outlook data files that can contain multiple messages.

These files are typically transferred to MCO in compressed, password-protected ZIP files over Secure File Transfer Protocol (SFTP).

Before you begin

  • Confirm the historical email files are in EML or PST format.

  • Confirm user mapping is configured before the import starts.

  • Confirm the files are compressed and password-protected if required by your implementation process.

  • Confirm the files are transferred through the agreed SFTP location.

  • Review EML filenames for unsupported characters before you provide them to MCO.

Filename requirements for EML files

Some special characters are not supported in EML filenames used for batch processing. Rename EML files before transfer if their filenames contain unsupported characters.

Using unsupported characters can delay processing.

Supported filename characters

The following characters are supported in EML filenames:

Alphanumeric characters

0-9, a-z, A-Z

Special characters

  • Exclamation point (!)

  • Hyphen (-)

  • Underscore (_)

  • Period (.)

  • Asterisk (*)

  • Single quote (')

  • Open parenthesis (()

  • Close parenthesis ())

Unsupported filename characters

Avoid the following characters in EML filenames:

  • Ampersand ("&")

  • Dollar ("$")

  • ASCII character ranges 00–1F hex (0–31 decimal) and 7F (127 decimal)

  • 'At' symbol ("@")

  • Equals ("=")

  • Semicolon (";")

  • Forward slash ("/")

  • Colon (":")

  • Plus ("+")

  • Space – Significant sequences of spaces might be lost in some uses (especially multiple spaces)

  • Comma (",")

  • Question mark ("?")

  • Backslash ("\")

  • Left curly brace ("{")

  • Non-printable ASCII characters (128–255 decimal characters)

  • Caret ("^")

  • Right curly brace ("}")

  • Percent character ("%")

  • Grave accent / back tick ("`")

  • Right square bracket ("]")

  • Quotation marks

  • 'Greater Than' symbol (">")

  • Left square bracket ("[")

  • Tilde ("~")

  • 'Less Than' symbol ("<")

  • 'Pound' character ("#")

  • Vertical bar / pipe ("|")

Character

Description

&

Ampersand

$

Dollar sign

ASCII 00-1F and 7F

Control characters

@

At symbol

=

Equals sign

;

Semicolon

/

Forward slash

:

Colon

+

Plus sign

Space

Spaces, especially repeated spaces

,

Comma

?

Question mark

\

Backslash

{

Left curly brace

ASCII 128-255

Non-printable ASCII characters

^

Caret

}

Right curly brace

%

Percent sign

`

Grave accent or backtick

]

Right square bracket

"

Quotation mark

>

Greater-than symbol

[

Left square bracket

~

Tilde

<

Less-than symbol

#

Pound sign

\

Vertical bar

|

Pipe

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