
Support
Get answers to the most common questions here
Our knowledge base can be searched and filtered by using the form below.
For assistance please email support.
Support Hours – M-F 9am-6pm Eastern.
Response times may vary but is typically within 10 minutes of email receipt.
An employee has left the company and we want to remove their account or old emails from the archive system.
Dashboard Video Tutorial
Dealing with an audit request



Folders Video Tutorial
Groups Video Tutorial
How do I add a new Administrator?
- Go to the Users tab.
- Click on the Add New User button under the column header Users.
- On the box that pops up you should enter the User’s name and their email address.
- If you don’t see the domain for their email address in the drop-down menu of available domains, you can click on the Add New Domain link to add the domain name.
- Click "Next" to continue.
- Click "Next" to skip "Step 2: Social Media Services".
- In "Step 3: Set Up Permissions" choose Account Administrator.
- Assign a login name and password for the new Administrator.
- Click "Add" to finish.
- You can have multiple Administrators on your account.
How do I add a new Reviewer?
- Go to the Users tab.
- Click on the Add New User button under the column header Users.
- On the box that pops up, you should enter the User's name and email address.
- If you don’t see the domain for their email address in the drop-down menu of available domains, you can click on the Add New Domain link to add the domain name.
- Click "Next"
- In "Step 2: Social Media Services," choose Next.
- In "Step 3: Setup Permissions," choose Reviewer.
- Assign a login name and password for the new Reviewer.
- Click "Add" to finish.
- You will then want to open that User's account in the User tab.
- Then click on Edit.
- Then, under the Group tab, you can drag the Group(s) under the "Group Reviewer" section to make this user a Group Reviewer for that Group or Groups. In the example below, the user is a member of the Accounts Receivable group and is a reviewer for the San Diego Office.

How do I add domains to my account?
-
- You must have the account administrator role permission to add services to your account.
- Select your user account preferences by selecting the user account icon located at the bottom of the menu bar. Next, select the "Domains" menu option.
- Enter the new domain name and click "Add Domain".
- Copy the DNS text record by selecting the copy link next to the new domain. Add a new DNS text record to your domain using the text that was copied by following the steps below:
Go to https://www.whois.com/.
Click on “WHOIS” and enter your domain name in the box.
Then click the “SEARCH” button.
In the results, locate the nameserver to get the domain provider.
Log in to your domain provider control panel.
Locate the section for updating your DNS records—it could be Managed DNS, Name Server Management, DNS Management, or Advanced Settings.
On the page, click the TXT record option and add the text for your DNS domain that you copied from the above step.
Save the settings and wait until they propagate. This can take a few minutes, up to 72 hours based on the "TTL" set on your domain record.
e. Click the "Verify" button to complete the addition of the new domain to your account. Note: The domain will not be active in your account until it is verified using the DNS text record information shown on this page.
How do I add groups?
- Click on the Groups tab.
- Click on the Add New Group button (below the title Groups).
- You will then see two tabs – Information and Users
- In the Information tab, choose a Name for your new Group.
- If applicable, drag surveillance policies from the Active Policies column to the Assigned Policies column.
- Click the Save button at the bottom of the section.
- Next, go to the User section of MessageWatcher, then click on the Group that you just added.
- Put checkmarks in the boxes next to the names of the people that you want in this new Group then click on Add to Group</strong
How do I add Instagram archiving to my account?
- Please use the Instagram mobile app to prepare your account for archiving: Verify that your Instagram account is a business account. More on that can be found here – https://help.instagram.com/502981923235522
- Link your Instagram account to your Facebook business page. More on that can be found here – https://help.instagram.com/176235449218188. Please note that you only need to link your Instagram account to your Facebook account. You do not need to share Instagram to your Facebook page.

- Click on the Users tab.
- Click on All Users to find the user who would like Instagram archiving.
- Click on the box next to the person's name.
- Click on the Add Services button.
- Click on the Instagram box.
- Click Add.
How do I add new services?
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- You must have the account administrator role permission to add services to your account.
- Select your user account preferences by selecting the user account icon located at the bottom of the menu bar.
- Click on the Services menu item.
- To enable a new service, toggle it on by selecting it from the available services in your account. Note: Enabling RingCentral or Zoom requires that you authorize your account when you are prompted.
- After enabling any additional services in your account you may add these services to existing or new users to start archiving content.

How do I add services for users?
-
- Go to the Users menu item.
- Select the user account(s) that you would like to add services to.
- Select the "Add Services" button.
- Select each service that you would like to add to your selected user(s). Note: Only services that have been enabled in your account can be added on this screen.
- Select "Add" to add the requested services to your selected user(s) to complete the process.
- You may edit a user to view the new service or to send the user an authorization link. Note: All new services require that the user authorize the service before archiving can start.

How do I add users?
-
- Go to the Users tab.
- Click on the Add New User button under the column header Users.
- On the box that pops up you should enter the User’s name and their email address.
- If you don’t see the domain for their email address in the drop-down menu of available domains, you can click on the Add New Domain link to add the domain name.
- Step 2 lets you add social media for the new user, select one or more of the optional social media services if archiving is needed.
- Step 3 lets you choose the new user’s permission level, please see the table below to learn about the different permission levels. If the user will not need to logon to the compliance portal the default permission "Archive Only" is recommended.

How do I archive Instagram Stories?


How do I archive only specific user accounts if I am using Google Workspace?

How do I assign policies so content starts getting flagged?


How do I authorize a social media service for archiving?
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- Note: All new services require that the user authorize the service before archiving can start.
- Go to the Users menu item.
- Select the user account that you would like to authorize.
- Select the new service from the user edit screen top menu. (this can be Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook or YouTube). In this example, we will select LinkedIn.
- If the new service is for yourself you may click the authorization link shown and follow the prompts to authorize us to archive your social account.
- If the new service is owned by another user, you may use the "Send Authorization Link" to compose an email to send to the user to request their authorization.
- After the new social service is authorized by the owner of the account, archiving will start the next day.

How do I authorize MessageWatcher to archive my YouTube content?
Archiving YouTube
Your Google YouTube data will be accessed and stored in your private MessageWatcher account and is retained for compliance purposes along with your other electronic communications. This data is only available to you and is never shared with any third party or used for serving advertisements. Your Google data will be retained for the duration of your specified retention period and will be deleted upon account closure. Upon authorization of your Google account we will access and store your YouTube channel name, description, video count, view count, subscriber count, featured channels and playlist names. We also access and store your channel discussion if you have it enabled. Additionally, we access and store your YouTube video titles, descriptions, publish dates and thumbnail images along with all comments made on the videos by yourself and others. Please authorize your YouTube channel by using the link that was sent to you from our support team. If you did not receive the link please navigate to your user account in your MessageWatcher portal and select the “YouTube” link on the top menu bar of the user dialog screen. Note, each user that archives a YouTube channel will have their own unique link to authorize our application for archiving. If you do not see the “YouTube” menu item in your user account, please contact MessageWatcher support and request that your YouTube channel be added to your account.YouTube Archive
- Click on the Users tab
- Click on the YouTube in the list of groups of users
- Click on the User's name
- Click on the YouTube tab which is to the right portion of the tabs
- Select the “YouTube Authorization” link to start the authorization process. Please note that you will be asked to log onto the Google/YouTube account that manages your channel. MessageWatcher does not store your Google account logon information.



How do I change my LDAP group that users are synchronized with?
How do I change my POP journal settings?
How do I change notification frequency?
- You must have the account administrator role to receive daily or weekly notifications. This is the report that gets emailed to an administrator so they can see if volumes of email, social media, etc. are in line with their expectations. You can first go to the Users tab.
- Click on Account Administrators.
- Click on the user's name.
- In the upper right, click on the Preferences tab.
- Scroll down to the Message Usage Notifications section.
- Choose None, Daily or Weekly to match how often you would like this admin to receive the reports.
- Choose what time of day the report will be emailed.
- Choose whether or not to have the admin receive reports on the weekend.
- Click Save.

How do I convert files that I have downloaded from the archive to Outlook PST format?

How do I create a folder and add emails into a folder?
- Along the left menu bar click on Folders –
- Click on the Add New Folder button toward the top of the page.

- Choose a name for this folder (do not user a folder name that already exists).
- Place restrictions on the level of user who can access your folder.
- Choose the types of activities users who can access the folder can do. For instance, the first check box lets you determine if users can delete this new folder.
- Hit the Add button to finish.

- To move emails, tweets, web pages, etc. into a folder, you can click on the folder icon at the bottom of the message viewing box.

- To move multiple files to a folder at one time you can go to the Search tab, run your search then check the boxes by the messages you would like to move. Or you can click the box above the checkboxes to highlight all of your search results. Next hit the Add To Folder button. See steps below.

How do I create policies?
- Choose Policies from the left menu.
- Click on the Add New Policy
- Choose a name for your new Policy and type it in the Policy Name
- Choose which type of policy this new policy will be from the available list
- Standard Policy
- Sender Domain Policy – flags content sent from specific domains, for instance, any email from SEC.gov
- Recipient Domain Policy – flags content sent to a domain, for example, any message sent to NCAA.org would get flagged as policy violations.
- Sender And Recipient Domain Policy – flags content to or from domains that you name, for instance any email to or from FBI.gov would get flagged as policy violations.
- Encrypted Password Protection Policy – flags emails with password protected or encrypted files.
- Attachment Policy – flags messages with attachments. An example of when this would be useful is if you wanted to use a policy to monitor specific users to make sure they were not sending confidential files to their personal email account.
- Whitelist Sender Email Policy – this policy type lets you create a list of senders for whom you do not want to flag email. For instance, [email protected]
- Whitelist Sender Domain Policy – with this policy you can create a list of domains from which you do not want to flag emails. An example might be, amazon.com
- Website Modified Policy – this policy type allows you to flag an instance when one of your web pages is changed, added, or removed.
- Website External Policy – with this policy type enabled you will flag any web page that has a link to an external website.
- Website Mandatory URL Policy – this policy type is useful if you are required to have a link to FINRA.org, SEC.gov or any other link on your website. MessageWatcher can flag web pages that do not have the link that they should have.
- Machine Learning Policy – this policy type is used if you are using our optional Machine Learning service which helps look at things like, employee sentiment, possible theft, unusual activity, off-hours activity and more.
- You can choose to duplicate an existing policy by choosing it from the drop down list under Copy Existing Rules if it will save you time or you can leave it as the default of Do Not Duplicate which means the new policy will not have any rules in it until you add rules to the policy.
- Under the Message Nature title, you can choose which types of communication you want to flag when rules in this new policy are violated. Inbound refers to messages coming in from outside servers or users, Internal is communication between your users and Outbound is communication from your users to outside domains.
- Click on the box next to Email Notification if you would like to be notified when there is a policy violation for this new policy.
- In the Additional Notification Address(es) box you can type the email addresses of others that you would like to have receive a notification anytime this policy is violated.

How do I delete a saved search?

How do I delete a user or group from the MessageWatcher system?
How do I disable a rule?
- Click on the Policies tab
- Choose the policy with the rule that you would like to disable
- Click on the Rules tab.
- Find the rule (the word or phrase) then click the green Active button to the left of the rule to be given the choice of disabling that rule.

How do I export a policy word list?
- To export a list of the words or phrases in apolicy first go to the Reports tab.
- Click on the Date Range you would like.
- Choose the policy that you would like. The words and phrases ("Rules") for this policy will show up in the report along with the number of times the Rule was violated in the date range you chose in step 2.
- Click the Run Report button.
- Click on the Download Excel File button. Then you can save it to your computer.

How do I export or download content?
- Go to the Search tab
- Enter a date range and any other criteria that you have for the export.
- Choose any other criteria such as Message Type, Addresses (Senders and/or Recipients), etc.

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- At the bottom of the column with the search criteria you will see Export Only Options
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- Choose Outlook PST if you would like to be able to open or deliver the export in a format that can be opened in Microsoft Outlook.
- Choose EML if you would like to export the data in a .eml format. This is the preferred export format for attorneys.
-
- Click on the Export button
-


How do I find changes to a website



How do I find my RingCentral content?

How do I find my RingCentral settings?


How do I find the lists of words and phrases that get flagged?


How do I get my personal LinkedIn content archived?
How do I import a MessageWatcher export into Outlook?






How do I import old emails into the email archive?
How do I log into MessageWatcher?
- 1-3 days after you signed up for the MessageWatcher service you received a welcome email with a link to your online MessageWatcher portal.
- If you read through that email you will see a link to your portal, along with your username, password and a link to an online tutorial.

How do I prevent a disclaimer from causing policy violations?
- Click on the Policies tab
- Choose the Policy (group of rules) that contains the rule causing the word or phrase in the disclaimer to get flagged. That is, if want to exclude "warning" from getting flagged in your MessageWatcher portal then in this step you will want to choose the Policy that contains "warning" as a rule.
- Click on the Rules tab
- Click on the “+ Add Rule” button
- Name your new rule
- Choose “(-) Exclude” from the Rule Modifier dropdown menu
- In the Rule Phrase box paste the relevant portion of the disclaimer, be sure to include the word(s) that were violated. We recommend adding a few words before and after the violated phrase to be sure it will only exclude your disclaimer.
- Click on the Add button

How do I provide archived items for an audit or examination?



How do I reduce the number of false positive policy violations?


How do I remove journaling for Microsoft 365 ?


How do I remove the journaling rule for Google Workspace?




How do I retrieve an email from the archive to give to a user or my legal counsel?
How do I review policy violations?
- Along the left menu click on the Flag icon (Message Review)
- See Message Review section in the main body of this reference.
- You can then click on the messages to view the message content.
- When viewing the item the gray box at the top will indicate which policy and which rule caused the violation (flag).
- If you click on the down arrow at the far right of the gray Policy Violation box it will display the violation with 5-10 words before and after the rule violation to show you the context of the issue. This will hopefully save you time in reviewing your policy violations.
- Policy violations will also be highlighted in light blue throughout the message if you would like to read through the entire message.

How do I review the emails that are archived?
How do I search for email?
- Go to the Dashboard by clicking on Dashboard link in the upper left of the screen.
- Scroll to the bottom of the right section of the page then click on Mail
- Or, go to the Search
- Enter a date range and any other criteria that you have.
- In the Message Type dropdown menu choose Mail.

How do I search for Facebook content?
- Go to the Dashboard
- Scroll to the bottom of the right section of the page then click on Facebook
- Or, go to the Search
- Enter a date range and any other criteria that you have
- In the Message Type dropdown menu choose Facebook.
How do I search for Instagram content?
- Click on the Search option
- Choose your date range
- Choose Facebook / Instagram from the Message Type dropdown menu


How do I search for LinkedIn content?
- Go to the Dashboard
- Scroll to the bottom of the right section of the page then click on LinkedIn
- Or, go to the Search
- Enter a date range and any other criteria that you have.
- In the Message Type dropdown menu choose LinkedIn.
How do I search for web pages?
- Go to the Dashboard
- Scroll to the bottom of the right section of the page then click on Website
- Or, go to the Search
- Enter a date range and any other criteria that you have.
- In the Message Type dropdown menu choose Website.
How do I setup Random Review?
How do I update my Password?

How do I verify that MessageWatcher is archiving my content?
- Log into your MessageWatcher portal.
- One way is to go the Dashboard then go to the bottom left and click on All Messages
- Or, along the left side of the screen you will see a magnifying glass / Search button, click on that.
- In the Filter column/box, choose your date range.
- Scroll down then in the Message Type box choose which type of content you would like to search for or All Message Types

How to download content?
- Go to the Search tab
- Enter a date range and any other criteria that you have for the export.
- Choose any other criteria such as Message Type, Addresses (Senders and/or Recipients), etc.

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- At the bottom of the column with the search criteria you will see Export Only Options
-
- Choose Outlook PST if you would like to be able to open or deliver the export in a format that can be opened in Microsoft Outlook.
- Choose EML if you would like to export the data in a .eml format. This is the preferred export format for attorneys.
-
- Click on the Export button
-


How to manage Zoom phones with MessageWatcher integration
- Select the "Users" menu item
- Select the "Zoom Account" that is shown,
- Select the Zoom User Account
- Select the "Zoom" top menu link as shown below.

- Select the Edit icon next to the "Associated Name"
- Using the drop-down list select the user that is assigned to the Zoom phone number listed.
- Select the "Update" button to complete the assignment.

I am new to MessageWatcher and don’t have a logon to the MessageWatcher service. How can I gain access to the system?
I am unable to create more Exports.
- Click on the Exports tab
- Highlight one or more previous exports.
- Click on the delete (trash can) icon to remove that export file.

I changed email hosting providers; do I need to change anything to keep archiving my email?
I don't see any results when I search.
- Make sure your search criteria match what you are looking for
- In the Addresses box (Search by Address) checking the AND button means the emails comes from AND goes to the same sender or senders which occurs much less frequently.
- Did you reauthorize your social media accounts when you received a request to do so?
- If none of the above help please contact [email protected] so we can make sure your account is configured correctly.
I forgot my password
- When you go to your login page you will see a Forgot Password Click on that.
- Type in your email address then hit the Send New Password button
- Since the email goes out right away please check your spam filter for an email from [email protected] then please whitelist this email address.
- If the message is not in your spam filter please email [email protected] to request a password reset.

I have forgotten my user name or password for the MessageWatcher archive portal. How can I reset it?
I used the password reset link in my MessageWatcher portal but did not receive a way to reset my password.
Login Video Tutorial
MessageWatcher is not archiving LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, email, or a website for my account.
- Did you request the service on your initial order form, send an email to request the service, or use the https://messagewatcher.com/request-services/ to let us know you wanted this archived?
- Did you reauthorize the archiving of this service when a reauthorization request was sent? Social media platforms require reauthorization so services can’t access your content indefinitely.
- If yes to both of the questions above please email [email protected] with details.
New User Tutorial
Policies Video Tutorial
Random Review Video Tutorial
Reports Video Tutorial
Search Video Tutorial
The policy violations are not getting flagged.
- Verify that you applied that policy to the Group(s) that need to be monitored by clicking on the Groups button, click on the Group that should have the policy applied to it, then you can drag policies from the Available Polices which are not being used, to the Assigned Policies column. The Assigned Polices are active for that Group. Then scroll down and click on the Save button.

- Make sure you created the policy and the rules in that policy – Along the left side of the screen click on Policies, choose the policy name, click on the Rules tab to see the list of rules. You can use the "+ Add Rule" button if you would like to add a Rule.

- Click on Policies along the left then choose the Policy you are interested in looking at. Next, under the Information tab look at the Message Nature section to make sure you are setup to look at what you want, like Inbound, Outbound, etc. Then click on the Save button.

Users Video Tutorial
We just hired a new employee. What steps are required to start archiving their emails?
Websites Video Tutorial
What is my URL to logon to the MessageWatcher email archive system?
What is the largest size email that can be archived?
Why should my organization archive and flag content in employees' personal LinkedIn accounts?
Zoom Installation and Authorization for MessageWatcher
- View all users' phone information/phone:read:admin This permission is used to retrieve a list of all users associated with your Zoom account to initialize the user into our system for archiving.
- View all users' call log information/phone_call_log:read:admin This permission is used to archive a user’s Zoom phone call logs.
- View all users' Zoom Phone SMS information/phone_sms:read:admin This permission is used to retrieve the Zoom phone SMS session information for archiving.
- View all users' call voicemail information/phone_voicemail:read:admin This permission is used to archive voicemails.
- View all user information/user:read:admin This permission is used to manage the accounts that require Zoom phone data archiving.
- Select the "Users" menu item
- Select the "Zoom Account" that is shown,
- Select the Zoom User Account
- Select the "Zoom" top menu link as shown below.
- To complete the authorization, select the "Zoom Authorization" link shown on the Zoom Account user.



Zoom Phone Integration Usage
- View all users' phone information/phone:read:admin This permission is used to retrieve a list of all users associated with your Zoom account to initialize the user into our system for archiving.
- View all users' call log information/phone_call_log:read:admin This permission is used to archive a user’s Zoom phone call logs.
- View all users' Zoom Phone SMS information/phone_sms:read:admin This permission is used to retrieve the Zoom phone SMS session information for archiving.
- View all users' call voicemail information/phone_voicemail:read:admin This permission is used to archive voicemails.
- View all user information/user:read:admin This permission is used to manage the accounts that require Zoom phone data archiving.


Zoom Uninstall/De-Authorization for MessageWatcher
- Select the “Users” menu item
- Select the “Zoom Account” that is shown.
- Select the Zoom User Account.
- Select the “Zoom” top menu link as shown below.
- To complete the de-authorization, select the “De-Authorization” link shown on the Zoom Account user.

