Cleaning out Mailboxes, Part 2

Based on user feedback from my first post on cleaning out mailboxes, I would like to pass along a few other ideas for clearing out space on your computer.

Removing Labels

When we moved to Microsoft's Exchange Online, any email that has two or more labels will be duplicated in the new mailbox so that one copy can go in each folder.  So, while removing multiple labels from your Gmail mailbox will not shrink its size now, doing so will prevent your new maillbox from greatly increasing in size.

One label that has become meaningless now is GW Archive.  This was a label that was set when we moved email from the old GroupWise system into Gmail years ago.  The GW Archive label indicated email messages that had been archived in GroupWise.  Most of those messages also had other labels associated with them to indicate where they should be filed.

To remove the GW Archive label from any email, open the GW Archive folder in your mailbox, use the check box to select all, then click on the link to select all conversations with that label.  Once selected,  you can click on the label icon and remove the check mark next to GW Archive.  This will strip the GW Archive label from all those emails, while leaving the messages themselves intact.  Of course, if you no longer want any of those very old messages, you could also opt to delete them, knowing that doing so will delete them from all labels under which they may be stored.

If you have other labels that you don't think you need any longer, you can use this same method to open other labels and strip that particular label from all emails.

Deleting Dictation

Many attorneys have been using outsourced dictation for many years.  Some of you have been saving all of the sent emails that you sent to the transcription companies, along with those large audio recording attachments.  This can be a great place to recover a large amount of mailbox space.

To find these, run the following search:

to:keystrokepro.com.

Once you find them, you can select all and delete.  If you are willing to delete the returned transcripts, you can search for from:keystrokepro.com.

Using the "to:" or "from:" ensures you only get messages to or from that address, not any email that references that name.

Of course, if you use a different transcription service, simply substitute keystrokepro.com with the other services name.

Conversation Mode

Be careful, if you have "conversation mode" turned on, these searches will show you all conversations where at least one email meets the search criteria.  If you delete all of these, it will delete the entire conversation.  That is probably ok, since it will simply be deleting forwarded recordings or transcripts.  Just be careful you know what you are deleting.

If you want to be sure you are deleting only the messages that fall into your search and not others in the same conversation,  you may want to turn off conversation mode temporarily.  To do that, click on the gear icon in the upper right hand corner of your inbox, and select "Settings".  In Settings, you should see a toggle switch  to turn off conversation mode.

Empty Trash

Of course, once you are done with your deletions, be sure to empty your trash.  Otherwise all your deleted mail will remain in trash for 30 days and will still need to be migrated.  Just be sure you want to delete what you are deleting.  Once you empty trash, you can no longer recover those messages.

Cleaning Out Your Mailbox

As we move our email system from Google to Microsoft, we bid adieu to the unlimited storage space that we have in Google.  Microsoft limits mailbox size to 50 GB.  While this is more than enough for most, it will be important once again to keep mailbox bloat under control

The firm also now recommends using MS Outlook on your computer, as opposed to using the simple online interface we had in Google.  Microsoft Exchange Online will also offer an online interface. However, some of the other systems the firm is adopting need to use the good old fashioned Outlook program on your computer.  Unlike more modern web based email, Outlook performance will be impacted by having particularly large mailboxes.  This is another reason to remove the bloat.

A third reason for cleanup is that our migration from Google to Microsoft will go much faster and more smoothly the smaller the mailboxes are than we need to move.  So if at all possible, please clean out your mailboxes.

Search Your Archives:

First, look for archived emails.  Many mail programs, particularly on your phones, have often archived mail that you thought you were deleting.  You may want to check and see if this is the case, by looking for archived mail in your mailbox.

To search only for archived email, run the following search in the Gmail search bar:

has:nouserlabels -in:Sent -in:Chat -in:Draft -in:Inbox

Be careful though, if you have "conversation view" turned on, you may still see some email that is not archived as Google will show you all conversations in which any one message within that conversation was archived.  Select the messages you want and delete them.

Search for Large Attachments

Most individual emails take up almost no space.  A plain text message is usually less than 5kb in size.  You could save millions of them and never fill your mailbox.  What takes up your space are large attachments and pictures.  Google allows for attachments of up to 25 MB in size.  A mere forty emails like this would use up 1 GB of storage space.  A single email with a 20 MB attachment takes up as much space as 10,000 short text emails of 2 KB each.

To search for these particularly large emails, I recommend doing a search by mail size.  For example, if I wanted to search for all of my emails larger than 20 MB, I would run the following search in the Gmail search bar:

larger:20m

I recommend searching for 20 MB and larger files.  If you don't find very many search for larger:15m, or larger10m, or even larger 5m to see all the larger files.  Delete those you do not need.

Search for older messages

Some of us have email messages going back decades.  Many of these may be for closed cases that we never want to review again, or maybe just old notes about going to lunch or taking a personal day back in 2003.  You can look for older messages by using the following search in Gmail:

Older_than:10y

That would show you all messages older than 10 years.  You could, of course change it to search for mail older than 5 years with: Older_than:5y.

You can also search by date.  For example, if your wanted to find anything sent or received before January 15, 2010, you would run the following search:

Before:2010/01/15

Specific Senders:

Perhaps you get mail from someone you are sure you never want to see again.  This is a great way to isolate all that junk mail from Amazon.com or linkedin.com

You can search for certain senders.  For example, if you wanted to search for every message you received from linkedin.com, you would search for:

from:linkedin.com

This will only show  you emails from that domain, not emails in which you happened to reference the domain in the text of your email.

Another good trick is to search for:

from:noreply

A great many junk mail senders use "noreply" in their from address.  This is a quick and easy way to find and delete them.

Combination Searches

You can run any of the above searches in combination with each other.  For example, if you want to see all emails larger than 10 MB and older than 3 years, you would search:

larger:10m AND older_than:3y

Deleting Mail:

Once you have your search results, you must select all the messages and then click on trash to send them to trash.  Your page shows you only a limited number at a time.  The default is 50 messages, while the maximum you can see on one page is 100 messages.

However, if you are really sure you want to delete all the messages you have found in your search, and don't want to look at the whole list, you can do the following:

Click on the box just above the list to select all the messages on that page.  When you do, another line will appear just above the first checked message.  It says: "All 100 conversations on this page are selected. Select all conversations that match this search." If you click on the underlined part, it will select all emails that match your search on subsequent pages without you having to scroll through each page.  Once you have selected the messages, simply click on the trash can icon to delete everything.

Remove Labels

Although multiple labels do not increase the space you use in Google, Microsoft does not allow you add more than one label to an email.  If you have assigned multiple labels to an email, our migration process will duplicate the email so that it can be stored in multiple folders.  This doubles the amount of space each email takes (or triples if you have three labels on one email).

If possible, you may want to consider removing multiple labels from emails.  You will not be able to use multiple labels going forward.  Removing them from existing emails will help reduce your footprint.

Empty Your Trash and Spam:

Now I know this advice goes directly against what I have been telling everyone for years.  When you delete something, it sits in your trash for 30 days, then disappears forever.  I have long strongly recommend you allow everything to sit in trash for 30 days before it goes away.  Once it is gone from trash, you cannot recover it.

However, in this case, I must ask that you empty your trash.  If not, the migration tool will pull over all the messages you put in trash, thus defeating the purpose of cleaning up you mailbox.  Just please, please, PLEASE, make sure you really want all those messages to disappear forever before emptying trash.

While you are at it, if your mailbox is like mine and has thousands of messages in your spam folder, you may want to empty that as well.  Google deletes spam after 30 days, but there may be thousands of spam messages in there every little bit helps in reducing the load for migration.

Leaving Gmail for Exchange Online

The firm has decided to move the margolisedelstein.com mail domain from G Suite (Google) to Microsoft Office 365 Exchange Online.  We will make this move quickly and expect the change to happen in the next few months.

Why this is happening

As the firm replaces a wide range of systems, several of our vendors say that their systems integrate better with Microsoft's solution rather than Google's.  It will also mean users will have a single account for both email and MS Office rather than the separate accounts that exist now.

The Process

We plan to use a migration specialist called Skykick.  The migration company will access your email and migrate all of your mail contacts, and calendar information into Exchange Online.   This process will take several weeks.  At some point around Labor Day, we plan to shut down Google, do a final sync, and begin using Office 365.  We will provide more detailed information on the cut-over as we get closer to the end of the process.

How to prepare

Google throttles the amount of data we can download from each mailbox every day.  Therefore, moving the data will take several weeks.  If you have a large amount of data in your mailbox, now would be an ideal time to begin deleting items you no longer need and which will only extend our migration process.

The new system has an email storage limit of 50 Gb, unlike Gmail's unlimited storage.  At present, just about everyone is well below that limit, which is just for email.  It does not count document storage you may be using in Google Drive.  But if you are getting close to that limit, you may want to be diligent about deleting messages that unnecessarily fill your account.

Beyond mail, you may be using your Google Account for other purposes.  You may have documents saved in Google Drive.  We expect to be able to migrate everything in your Google Drive to Box.  This is a good time for house cleaning though.  If you have files you no longer need in Google Drive, please delete them now.

If you have created documents or spreadsheets in Google Drive that are in Google format, we will convert them to Microsoft format.  In other words, a Google Doc will convert to a MS Word Doc, and a Google Sheet will convert to MS Excel.

If you have been using Google Hangouts for instant messaging and chat, those logs will not come over.  If you need to save any of that for some reason, you may want to cut and paste the information into a document.  Going forward, we recommend using Microsoft Teams for chat and IM.

If you have pictures saved in Google Photos in a work account, these also will be left behind.  If you have photos needed for work, please save copies into the appropriate matter directory.  If you have personal photos, you may want to download them to a personal computer before they disappear forever.

If you are using any other Google applications and are worried about losing information, please contact me to discuss further.  We will do everything in our power to protect whatever data you deem important.

We will also need to find new homes for the Research Home Page, and (hopefully) this blog.  We are working on alternative solutions and will announce them as soon as they are ready.

Change Now

Of course, switching to a new mail system means that the familiar Gmail web page will be going away, as will the Gmail app that you use on phones or tablets.  We will replace these with Microsoft Outlook.  If you have already installed Office 365 on your computer, you already have Outlook installed.  To become more familiar with it, we would like you to begin using it now.  You can connect Outlook to your existing Gmail account using the G Suite Sync tool.  If you click on the link, you can download and run the tool on your computer.  This will configure Outlook to access your Google account.

If you begin using Outlook now, you have time to familiarize yourself with the Interface, but can still also use a browser to access the old familiar way while you are learning Outlook.  Once we make the move to Exchange, the Gmail interface will go away and we will point your Outlook software to the new Exchange back end.  If you are familiar with Outlook by then, you will be ahead of the game and not really see any changes in the way you work with your mail.  You will also have the option to access your mail online through outlook.com.

OneDrive for MS Office

A couple of weeks ago, I mentioned that it was possible to open and save documents from MS Office (Word, Excel, PowerPoint) directly to Google Drive.  This allows you to access those documents from anywhere simply by being logged in to your Google account.

You can also do the same thing using Microsoft's OneDrive.  If you have not used it before, OneDrive is very similar to Google Drive.  It allows you to save documents in the cloud, accessible from anywhere you have Internet access as long as you log into your Office 365 account.  You can even edit the documents using Microsoft's online version of Office if you don't have the full version of Office installed on the device you are using.  Keep in mind though that the online versions of Word, Excel, and PowerPoint do not offer all of the advanced features available to you on your downloaded version of MS Office.

When you open or save a document in Word, you should see a OneDrive option.  If you select that, you may be asked to log into your OneDrive Account.  Your account name is your email address.  We sent you an Office 365 password in recent months, though you may have changed it.  If you don't know your password, the Help Desk can reset it for you.

Whether you use Google Drive, OneDrive, or neither is strictly up to you.  Personally, I like Google Drive better since I am already signed into that one always for may email.  If you use MS Word on an iPad, there is no way to connect from there to Google Drive, though you can access OneDrive.

Google also puts no limit on storage space, although OneDrive's 1 TB limit is pretty generous.  Both use encryption to protect your documents when uploading or downloading, and both remain password protected from the view of others unless you share a file or folder with others.

While these online storage options may be convenient if you work outside the office, keep in mind that copies of all client related documents must also be saved to the Matter Directory (M Drive) pursuant to firm policy.

Trashing your Gmail Messages

Gmail offers three ways to rid yourself of email you no longer want to keep around.  You can archive it, mark it as spam, or put it in the trash.  If you archive it, the message will remain in your mailbox forever, just not in the inbox or any of your other folders.  You can find it by looking in "all mail" or by searching for the message.

If you mark an item as spam, it goes into your spam folder.  This has the added benefit of alerting Google that you consider similar messages to be spam.  If you are getting ads that you don 't want to see in your inbox, it is best to mark them as spam rather than simply trash them.  That way, you will not be bothered with as much junk mail in your inbox going forward.

If you have a message that you no longer want or need for any reason, you can delete it by moving it to trash.  When a message goes into your trash, it will eventually be removed from your mailbox entirely.  If you search for an email that is in trash, you must specify that you want Google to search trash.  By default, email searches exclude anything in the spam or trash folders.

The benefit of the spam or trash folders is that you have time to realize that you really need something you had removed.  You can go into your trash folder and move any item back to the inbox. Similarly, you can go into your spam folder and mark an item as "not spam" thus moving it back to the inbox.

In truth, there is no real need to delete any messages anymore.  The firm pays for unlimited storage, meaning you can save as much as you like.  Saving extra email also has no impact on performance in Gmail.

Even so, there are some emails you are certain you never want to see again.  It is fine to put those in the trash.  Some people like to be tidy and regularly empty their trash as soon as they put messages in it.  I strongly recommend against this practice.  Google will automatically delete anything in trash or spam folders after 30 days.  That gives you time to realize you need something, but also ensures that the trash will not pile up in the account forever.  Once you remove an item from trash, it is virtually impossible to restore to your inbox.  It is much better to give yourself that 30 day window to recover anything, before it is gone forever.

Auto-Replies in Gmail

The firm has a strict policy against attorneys using auto-replies for clients.  We never want to leave a client with the impression that we are not available.  Therefore you should never set up a general auto-reply to be out of the office.

If there is some reason an attorney is unable to access email from home, their phone, or just about any other Internet connected device  for an extended period of time, we can make arrangements to have a partner monitor your mail.

Gmail, however, has an option in its auto-reply to send auto-replies only to other people within the firm (i.e. to anyone who emails you from a margolisedelstein.com address).  This usage is permissible and can be an easy way to let people know you are out of the office when they are trying to contact you.

To set up an internal auto-reply, open your Gmail settings, toward the bottom is a box for "Vacation Responder."  Turn the Responder on.  Enter the dates you want it to be active and the message you want sent.

BE SURE to check the box that says "Only send a response to people in Margolis Edelstein."  We only want this message to respond to internal emails, not to clients.  Save changes and you are done.  Below is an example:

The auto-reply will automatically kick in on the "first day" you selected and will automatically turn off on the "last day" selected.  So once configured, there is no need to mess with it again until you want to change it to a new set of dates.

How the Firm Backs Up

Data protection is something the firm takes very seriously.  I thought it might be helpful to go over how we back up our data and what is available for restoration:

Google:

For Gmail and Google Drive, we have the ability to restore deleted data for up to 25 days.  After that, the information is gone forever.  Restoring data is not particularly easy.  We cannot restore specific items, but have to restore everything back to a certain date.  So this is not something you want to use routinely.

I strongly recommend that when you delete something from Drive or Gmail, that you simply let it sit in your trash.  Do not empty your trash.  After 30 days, those files or emails will go away on their own.  You don't have to worry about having too much trash, especially now that we have no space limits in Gmail or Drive.  Letting your deleted data sit in trash for 30 days, gives you the time to realize you might have needed something, or deleted more than you thought (such as deleting an entire conversation rather than a single email).  Trash gives you the time to recover that data quickly and easily.

Beyond trash and the 25 day Administrator recovery, our Google mail is backed up to Google Vault. We have the ability to recover messages sent or received, but there is no easy way to restore messages to your inbox.  We can print out a few PDF files of emails if needed for something.  It is not designed to recover large amounts of data easily.  In a real emergency we can use third party tools to do it, though you probably do not want to be the test case for something like this.

File Servers:

Most of our offices have a local file server where we store documents and other important data.  Different offices use different network letters for this, but I'm talking about our Matter Directories (MDIR) - the M: drive in most offices, as well as your personal network drive, the H: or I: drive in most offices.

We back up the file servers using a dedicated backup server built by a company called Datto.  Some offices use a Sirus class backup, others use an Alto class.  It mostly depends on the amount of data being stored.  Either way, both systems back up changes to the file server every hour during the work day.  After a couple of days, those hourly changes are merged into a single file that keeps one set of changes for the whole day.  After a few days, those daily files get merged into a single weekly file and then eventually into a monthly file.  The exact number of days before a merge and the number of months that we keep on file vary from office to office.  The variation is mostly a matter of how much space we have on the backup server.  If we have more space, we can keep more backups.

If necessary, we can recover specific files that may have been deleted.  We only need to know the names of the files, the folders where they had been stored, and when they were deleted.  Something deleted and created between backups may not be available.  For example, if you want a file from a week or two ago, we only have weekly backups.  In that case, if you created a file on Tuesday, and deleted it on Wednesday, it may not be available on the weekly backup, which only shows changes from the way the server looked on Sunday compared to the previous Sunday.

In the event the entire file server crashed and died, we have the ability to do a complete restore from backup to a new file server to get everything up and running again.  We also have the ability in some of our larger offices to run the backup as a replacement file server while the main one is being repaired.  We had to implement this very procedure in Philadelphia recently after the system board died in the main file server there.

We store backup files on site for quick restoration if needed.  We also upload a copy of these files to cloud storage, in the unlikely event that an entire office is destroyed, taking out both the file server and the local backup.  Again, how long we keep backups varies by office, depending on how much available space we have.  However, nothing is available more than one year after deletion.

Two of our offices do not have file servers.  Our Hollidaysburg and Beaver offices are deemed too small to have a file server on site.  Rather we use a shared workstation drive in those offices.  The matter directories in those offices get backed up nightly to a server in Philadelphia, which in turn feeds into the backup system in that office.

Time Entry

Time entry data is backed up using the same system we use for file servers.  Our Elite servers in Philadelphia record all time entries in real time.  These are backed up hourly during the day, less so on nights and weekends.  In the event of a server failure, we could do a backup, but would lose any entries done since the last hourly backup.  As with the file servers, the time entry backup servers are also backed up to the cloud in the event of a site disaster.

Individual Computers

I want to stress also that we do not back up in any way, the data stored on your individual laptops or desktop PCs.  You should not keep items in your "My Documents" folder or anywhere else on the C: drive if you care about losing them.  If your local hard drive fails, all that data could be irretrievably lost.

If, for some reason, you cannot store the information on your H: drive, storing it in your Google Drive is probably the best place to keep items you are concerned about losing.

Google Apps Unlimited

Over the weekend, we upgraded our Google account to Google Apps Unlimited.  The only real difference for the end users is that there are no longer any limits on cloud storage, either for Gmail or for Google Drive.

You no longer need to worry about deleting emails to make space.  Of course, you are welcome to delete whatever emails you like.  There is simply no longer any pressure on you to free up available space to make room for more.

Deleting messages has virtually zero impact on the speed or performance of Gmail, at least as far as using the online system.  If you access your messages using a third party program, the number of messages may be more of an issue.

The "unlimited" also affects Google Drive.  I have been encouraging people to make more use of Drive to store items for mobile use.  Now that there are no limits on Drive storage, you can feel free to use it without fear of hitting any space limits.

I have discussed some of the benefits of Drive in an earlier blog post.  Drive essentially performs two distinct functions.  One is to create online documents (word processing, spreadsheets, presentations, etc." using the Google Docs cloud based software.

The other is Google Drive feature is cloud based file storage.  The second feature operates much like Dropbox.  You can store files of virtually any type or format in a Drive folder, then share them with whomever you like.  People both inside the firm or outside can have access to files.  While Drive gives you the ability to make documents public, that would expose them to the entire Internet.  Typically if the files are at all confidential, you will need to share them with specific email addresses.  If the other person's email is not a Google email, they will have to register it the first time they try to access documents.  After that, they will be able to access whatever shared documents you have provided, until you remove those rights.

Google Drive is also a great way to have access to your key files while out of the office. You can save your files to Google Drive, then download them from home, in court, or anywhere you have Internet access.  No more need to use VPN.

One word of warning though - The firm still expects all key documents related to clients to be stored on your MDIR (M: drive for most people).  Any files stored elsewhere may cause problems for the firm if others need to access those same files.  Since use of Google Drive is only an option, not yet standard procedure for everyone, we need to have copies of all files stored in the Matter Directory.  If you copy a file to Google Drive and make changes to it there, you are responsible for getting a copy of the altered files back into the Matter Directory.

The IT Department is exploring some better options for organizing Google Drive and may be testing some new options soon.  For now, feel free to make greater use of Google Drive.  If you have any thoughts on how others can make better use of it, or any other good mobility suggestions, please pass them along to me to share with others.

Secure Your Email With Two Step Verification

Occasionally hackers are able to take control of an email account at the firm.  Typically, the hacker will send emails to everyone in the user's address book, trying to get them to click on a link that will infect the user's computer or steal that user's password.  A hack also gives the hacker the ability to read and delete all of your existing emails.

Basic security requires that you should never share your passwords with anyone outside the IT Department.  Your password should ideally be at least eight characters, contain both letters and numbers (and other types of characters if you wish), and should not be the same thing you use on all your other accounts.  You should never enter your Gmail password on any site that asks for it outside of Google.  If a site looks suspicious and asks for such information, you can always check with the help desk for a second opinion.

Caution alone, however, may not be enough.  To better secure your Google data, you may want to try using Two Factor Authentication (2FA).  Google make 2FA available to all of our users.  We have not made it mandatory because it can result in some rather significant inconveniences.  If, however, you wish to add this extra level of protection, you may do so.

The 2FA protocol essentially blocks hackers from accessing your Gmail account or other Google features by requiring a second step beyond entering your password.  You can associate a telephone number with your Google Account.  After you enter your Google name and password, Google will call or text your phone with a second random six digit number.  You must then enter that number in order to access your Google account.  

Once you have done this on a computer, you can tell Google to trust that computer for 30 days, meaning you will not have to go through that second step every time, just once per month.  You will also need to set up a special App Password on any device you use, such as a phone, tablet, or third party software package that accesses your Google account.  The App Password is a long randomly generated password from Google, a unique one for each device you use, in order to access your Google account from that application.

This additional security makes it virtually impossible for a hacker attempting to log into your account from another location.  It does, however, make life more complicated for you, since it regularly requires you to take extra steps to verify that you really are you.

I have been using myself as a test case for 2FA on my own account.  I find it mildly annoying to go through the extra steps on occasion.  Every time I log in from a new computer, I need to have my phone handy for authentication.  That said, it has not been a major problem or impediment for me, and seems to work as advertised.

The important thing to remember if you turn on 2FA is that you will need your phone with you at all times in order to receive a text message with the random pin number.  If you are one of those people who does not view their cell phone as an appendage which never parts from them, then 2FA may become a real impediment to getting to your email.  If you are on the road and lose or forget your phone, you will not be able to check messages through some other place, such as a hotel computer.  Also, if you plan to use other programs to access your mail, such as Outlook, or the mail program that came with your iPhone or Android (something other than the Gmail App) you will need to go through a separate setup process for each of these applications.

If you find  yourself unable to get into your account after turning on 2FA, please note that the help desk will not be able to help you gain access to your messages, nor check  your messages for you. The IT Administrator will need to go through a more cumbersome process of turning of 2FA which is not an easy or immediate thing.

With all that said, if anyone is interested in turning on 2FA on your Google account, you may do so via this site:

https://www.google.com/landing/2step/

Using Gmail Categories

Many months ago, Gmail rolled out "categories" to the Gmail inbox.  I have not written about it sooner, because I did not particularly like it myself.  But some users have found it useful, so I thought I should discuss it further.

Categories tries to to organize your inbox better into up to five separate categories.  Instead of a single inbox, you will see up to five tabs at the top: Primary, Social, Promotions, Updates, and Forums.  You do not have to select all five, but you don't have the ability to change the names or do much else to control them.

Once enabled, Google will decide on its own what incoming emails belong in which categories.  The idea is that less important email, e.g. stuff from vendors, newsletters, notifications from Facebook or Linkedin, will not clutter your inbox (which is the "primary" tab).  Instead, such items will go into one of the other tabs.  These are emails that you don't consider spam, but don't also consider a top priority.

I am not a fan of categories, primarily because I don't have much of any control over what Google considers important.  As a result, I just have to spend more time going through all five tabs rather than looking at everything in one place.  You do have the ability to create filters, i.e. rules that will force an incoming email into a particular tab.  They work pretty much the same as using filters to force mails into a particular label (i.e. folder) rather than going into your inbox.

Another limitation of the Categories is that if you use another program, say Outlook on your computer, or the built-in mail program on your iPhone or Android, then Categories will not work in those places.  All the stuff is dumped into your inbox.  Therefore, your Gmail inbox and the Gmail inbox on your phone may have different contents.

If, however, you get a great deal of automatic mail that is not quite spam but also is not as important as other things, you may find Categories useful.  You can set it up in Gmail simply by going into "settings" then "inbox".  Select the categories you want to use, and then save.  Gmail will take it from there, auto-sorting all the messages in your inbox.  If you decide you don't like it, just turn it off and everything returns to one inbox.

HIPAA, Confidentiality, and Google

I start this post with a warning.  I am going to discuss a few aspects of HIPAA as it relates to our use of Google Apps for Business.  This is not meant to be an authoritative or complete analysis of the HIPAA requirements for protecting medical information.  As lawyers, you are ultimately responsible for taking any necessary steps to keep medical records confidential, as you are obligated to keep pretty much any client information confidential.  I am merely posting some thoughts that might help with your efforts to protect client confidentiality while using the firm's online resources.

Even if you do not deal directly with medical records, you may find parts of this article helpful in ensuring protection of client confidentiality in your storage and transmission of electronic records.

The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) was designed, among other things, to create an obligation for heath care professionals and insurance companies to ensure the privacy of client medical records.  A law firm which handles such records is not covered directly by HIPAA, but is considered a "Business Associate" of those covered and therefore must take care to protect the privacy of medical records in our possession.

If you wish to read more about the HIPAA Privacy Rule in general, I recommend this page at HHS as a good place to start.  At its most basic level, the idea is that we take care to make sure that medical records are not disclosed to anyone who should not have them.  HIPAA seems to be maddeningly vague and exactly what level of security or care is really required though.  We often get questions about compliance from some of our clients.  We need to make sure that we comply with whatever the client requires of us.

On question that we sometimes get is whether our email system is compliant.  Gmail has a HIPAA Business Associate Agreement which Google says ensures compliance with HIPAA with the use of Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Drive (including Docs, Sheets, Slides, and Forms), Google Sites, and Google Apps Vault services.  Notably, some Google Apps for  Business services including, Google+, Google Groups, and Google Voice are not covered by this Agreement.  Google also publishes an Implementation Guide which gets into more detail about what can be used and what settings best comply with privacy requirements.

Gmail

Some clients have asked about our ability to send and receive encrypted email communications. Gmail requires encrypted communications between our terminals and the Google servers.  This allows us to create or read an email over an encrypted connection.

However, when an email travels between any two different email systems, they must be unencrypted or else the receiving system will not be able to read the message.  HHS, which is responsible for enforcement of HIPAA, does not prohibit use of unencrypted emails.   (See, e.g., HHS FAQ).  Some clients, however, wish to have fully encrypted end to end communications with the firm.  To set up secured connections, we must have a shared encryption key with the other organization's domain. Gmail includes the ability to set up a shared key.  If a client demands this, I can work with their IT staff to get it set up.  Doing so would encrypt correspondence between our two firms.  However, anything sent to a third party would not be protected by this encryption.

Google Drive

Another important concern for many people is Google Drive (which includes Google Docs).  This can be a great online collaboration tool.  You can upload document to a drive, share it with others, who can then download them to their system.  With a limited document types you can even edit the documents online and work collaboratively.

There is relatively little written about privacy requirements here.  But certainly, when setting your share settings, you would not want to make the document public, which would expose them to anyone on the Internet.  There is an option to share documents to "anyone with a link".  This is essentially public, but hides the documents from search engines.  Someone could not simply run a search and come across your documents.  It would be pretty difficult to find those document without a clickable link leading directly to them.  But since you have not control over who might be forwarded those links, it is not a good idea to share any confidential data at this level.

Google indicates it is acceptable to share confidential files to specific authorized users.  When you set a share for a specific email address, the user will receive an email with a link to the shared document or folder. The email address of the other users need not be a Gmail address, but the user will have to register his or her email address with Google, if not already registered, in order to access the documents.

Typically, you would only give a user read only access unless you are working collaboratively. Otherwise, the user can edit or delete your files.  Even if a file is read only, the user can still download the file and make changes to a copy offline.  They simply cannot edit the online version of your document.

Secure Your Devices

Even if Google remain secure, if you end device, (your laptop, phone, or tablet) is not secured, you are creating a major security hole.  Make sure your devices are protected by a finger print or password if you receive or maintain any confidential information on that device.  Also, firm cell phones are secured with Mobile Device Management.  If your phone is lost or stolen, we have the ability to wipe the contents remotely.  Be sure to tell us if a device is missing.  We need to wipe the data before the carrier cuts off service to the device.  So call us before Verizon.

Finding Gmail

Losing an important email can be frustrating.  More often than not, an email is not gone, but cannot be found for some reason.  Today's post will explain a few Gmail tips on finding an email.

Search for it

Google is, of course, best known as a search company.  So searching your own email should be something they do well.  At the top of your screen, there is a search box for searching your mail.  Just type in a term and hit enter.  It should be that easy.  Clicking on the down arrow between the search field and magnifying glass brings up an advanced search field.

Search trash and spam separately

But what if search does not find what you are seeking?  For starters, search does not display results from your trash or spam folders.  If you want to search there, you need to specify that folder.  For example, if I wanted to find an email that contained the word "flower" I would run these searches for the following folders:

in:spam flower
in:trash flower

Incidentally, both the spam and the trash folders hold emails for 30 days and then delete them. So you should not use these folders to hold anything you want to access later.  It also means you don't need to worry about cleaning out these folders manually.  They are self-cleaning.  Cleaning out items manually only denies you that 30 day recovery period if you made a mistake.  Once removed completely, you cannot recover them.

Archived mail

Sometimes an email has been archived.  Archiving in Gmail means something very different than in our old system.  Previously, it meant the message would be moved offline to a separate database.  In Gmail, archiving simply means the message is retained but is not in the inbox or in any other folder you may have created.

There are times when an email gets archived by mistake.  Often, deleting an item on your phone causes it to be archived.  You can search for archived items in Gmail, or simply open "all mail" to view everything, including archived messages.  If you see a message with no labels on it, you can add a label to move it to one of your folders, or add the inbox label back to put it back in your inbox.  Or, you can choose to delete or make as spam.

Another quick aside: why mark something as spam rather than just delete?  If you mark an item as spam, Google will remember that choice and be more likely to mark future similar emails or emails from the same sender as spam.  This helps keep your inbox cleaner.  But if you want to see similar messages in the future, just delete them.  Don't mark as spam.

Narrowing your search

Say you run a search but get too many results.  You may want to use some more advanced search results.  You can limit by date.  You may also want to limit a name by field.  Say, for example,  you are looking for an important email that Mr. McKenna sent you .  If you simply type Mckenna into search, it will show every email on which he was copied, or even just mentioned.  But if you search for from:mmckenna@margolisedelstein.com you will only get messages sent from that address.

For other advanced search commands, check out this advanced search help page from Google.

Forwarding attachments from your phone

Several people reported to me that they have had problems forwarding emails with attachments.  I ran some tests on both Android and iPhone.  Here is what I found:

If you are using an Android with the default email program that comes with the phone, as is the norm, and if you simply open an email that contains an attachment and then try to forward that email to someone else, the recipient will receive the email but not the attachment.  The reason for this problem is that the phone only sends what it has. By default, the phone does not download an attachment simply because you open an email.  Doing so would quickly clutter up the limited hard drive space you have on your phone as well as wastes bandwidth that costs extra when used excessively.

If you click on the attachment and download it to your phone and then try to forward it to someone, that forwarded message should include the attachment.   That was the case on several tests I tried on my Galaxy S5.  

With iPhone 6, when you forward an email, the phone should prompt you whether you want to include the attachment.  If you say yes, the phone downloads the attachment and then includes it in the forwarded email.  Some people reported that there are times when the iPhone does not ask whether you want to include the attachment.  In the tests I ran on an iPhone 6, however, it asked me every time, unless there was no attachment associated with the email.

Another option is to use the Gmail App rather than the default email app that comes with your phone. when using the Gmail App on either the iPhone or Android, there is no need to download the attachment at all. Forwarding an email that contains an attachment will automatically include that attachment for the sender regardless of whether it has been downloaded to your phone or not. This is obviously much more efficient if you do not intend to download the attachment for viewing on your phone otherwise.  By design, if you simply reply to the email, even Gmail will not include the attachment. 

If the Gmail app is not already on your phone it is a free download from Apple's App Store or the Google Play Store depending on your phone.  On Android, there should be no need to configure the app if you were already logged into your phone using your Gmail account. An iPhone will need to know your email address and password.  You can use the Gmail app or the default email app on your phone interchangeably. You can go back and forth and they will remain in sync.  So if you only want to use Gmail to forward emails, that is perfectly fine.

The Future of Email

Move from GroupWise to Gmail

For many years, the firm used Novell GroupWise for its email and calendaring system.  About two years ago, we switched to what is today called Google for Work as our email system.  In making this change, we lost some features, had to go through the difficulties associated with migrating all of our existing data to the new system, and had to relearn how to work with email the Google way.  Many have expressed to me their unhappiness with the change, so I thought I would spend today's post explaining why we made the change.

The change was not made lightly.  I have  had a personal Gmail account since early 2005, when the Gmail was still in beta testing.  I created a test domain with Google back 2008.  For several years, I judged Gmail not ready for the enterprise environment, but kept watching it improve.  We eventually created a test group that worked with the test system for many months and eventually made the decision in early 2013 to move the firm and its domain to manage Gmail.  The data and user migration itself took nearly a year to complete.

Reasons for the Change

There were many reasons for the change, including the following:

• Mobility: Gmail offers a much easier way to connect to iPhone and Android devices, as well as other access outside the office.  By removing the need for a client, you can check email on any computer with Internet access from anywhere in the world.  Although GroupWise had a web component, it was limited in its ability and difficult to use for many functions.
  
• Disaster Recovery: because Gmail is available from anywhere at any time, a disaster event that shuts down an office does not put us out of business.  We had two snow related events that caused an office to be shut down for several days while using GroupWise.  Attorneys could not access mail because the server containing their mailbox could nto get power.  Should such an event happen today, attorneys can still access email from home or a coffee shop without having to worry that the mail server is sitting in a powerless building.
  
• Better Mail Management: GroupWise tended to slow down the more mail you kept stored in your mailbox.  Gmail is designed so that even if you have tens of thousands of emails in your inbox, it does not get slowed down trying to sort and present them to you every time you open your account.
  
• Spam Filtering: Our spam filtering service went out of business in 2013.  A new service was going to cost as much per user as all of Gmail, which includes spam filtering.
  
• Server Proliferation: maintaining GroupWise required the maintenance of a mail server, a second server to connect phones to the mail system, a third server to handle web and internet interface issues, as well as space on six servers in various satellite offices.  Maintaining all that at a time when IT staff was shrinking was becoming too difficult.
  
• Remote Access Complaints: When using GroupWise remotely or from offices that did not have a local server, there were quite valid complaints about how slowly GroupWise operated.  By contrast, Gmail is designed to operate over low bandwidth Internet connections and works much better under such circumstances.
  
• Extra Features: In addition to mail, contacts and calendars, Google for Work offers a wide range of other features and add-ons, including Google Drive, video conferencing, instant chat, etc.  It also offers additional benefits behind the scenes benefits such as encrypted communications for clients who demand it, and management of cell phone devices to protect the security of email content.
  
• Elimination of several bugs: GroupWise had been giving us problems with corruption of archived mail, as well as issues related to addressing sent mail properly.  These are issues we were able to leave behind by moving to Google.
  
• Better Backup and Recovery: Use of Google Vault allows us to search for and recover any emails sent to or from the firm.  This makes tracking disputes over whether an email was sent much easier.  It also allows us to find content a user might have accidentally deleted but now needs.

Despite the difficulty of any transition and despite the loss of a few features we may have like in GroupWise, I think the switch was a major improvement for the firm.

Alternative Solutions:

Some have asked why the firm did not switch to a Microsoft Exchange system.  For me, this would have been worse choice than staying with GroupWise.  The problems of server proliferation and staff time spent fixing data problems or hardware and software glitches would have become worse.  Exchange would not only be more expensive and time consuming to run, but would probably result in increased down time.  It would increased IT staffing needs, resulting in increased costs.  Also, because Exchange must be updated every few years, the costs and inconveniences of upgrade would have made things worse.

Another option would have been to have a hosted Exchange server.  This essentially would shift the hassles of running the exchange server to a third party.  We looked at this option.  In addition to being more expensive, we would be reliant on the quality of services of whomever was managing our server.  Service and support might not live up to promises.  We also found greatly increased costs for various options that might need to be added later, such as encryption for clients would add extra costs.

A third alternative would have been to go with a competing cloud solution, such as Microsoft Office 365.  Microsoft did not start this service until mid-2011, after we were well into testing Google.  In its infancy, Microsoft had a great many bugs to work out.  It also offered few extras and was charging a great deal more and offering less features.  In addition, the web client was rather weak and limited, and using a new mail client would reduce our ability to access mail from outside the office and create additional expenses.  Google's solution made much more sense.

There were a number of other mail services that we considered.  But I was attracted to the security of having a large established multinational corporation that that could back up its data all over the world, and unlikely to go bankrupt to be a strong selling point for Google over many smaller companies offering similar services. 

Using a New Interface.

Of course, no solution is perfect, and I know people have complaints about Gmail.  One of the most commonly expressed is frustration with the user interface, i.e. the web page that shows the inbox.  Many people more familiar with other mail clients have found it difficult to get used to this.  

For a time, we considered adding a mail client to work with Gmail.  We tested Mozilla Thunderbird extensively, but were not satisfied with how it worked and decided not to send to a test group.

We are still evaluating whether to use MS Outlook as a mail client that can connect to Gmail.  This will give users the ability to do their mail in Outlook without having to use the Gmail web interface.

I have concerns about this option, not the least of which is that it is another point of failure.  It is another program that the help desk would need to learn and support.  There is the cost of getting Outlook for many users not using MS Office.  There are configuration issues related to keeping Outlook in sync with Gmail.  There will inevitably be difficulties with users who use Outlook sometimes and the web interface other times, with different features available depending on how it is accessed.  Obviously, Outlook would not be available on every device you might access your mail account, meaning there would inevitably be some back and forth.  I also don't put it past Microsoft to create bugs when connecting Outlook to Gmail, or eventually cutting off Google's ability to use its patented ActiveSync technology in order to force users to drop Gmail for Microsoft's solution.

These concerns aside, we have been evaluating Outlook as an option and have been testing its benefits and limits.

Gmail Will Remain for the Foreseeable Future

Some have asked if we might switch our Email to Office 365 or another provider.  I am still convinced that Gmail provides the best option for the firm.  Even if I were to be convinced there is something better, it would take several years to plan and execute a conversion of all of our data.  I am unlikely to put the firm through such a disruptive event again unless there was a marked benefit to the change.  At present, I do not see that with any other service or system.

What are your thoughts?

I have  tried to express my view in this article.  But you the users have a say in where we may move in the future.  If there are good reasons to change, we are always open to looking at other solutions.  You can make your opinions known by taking the poll below.  Click on the link below to take the firm's poll on email systems:

Take the Poll

See the Results

The results will update as more people take the poll, so feel free to check back.

Gmail: Including Sent Items In Your Inbox

Google can sometimes be frustrating.  It its efforts to simplify, it sometimes leaves out options we may like.  One example of this is Google's refusal to include an option that allows you to have your sent items shown in your inbox.  This is part of Google's strategy to keep your inbox as uncluttered as possible.  But it would be nice if users had the ability to opt out of this.

The only way a sent item will show up normally, is if you send a message and receive a response.  If your mail is set to "conversation mode" both the sent item and the reply are in your inbox.  You also have the option of selecting "all mail" instead of just sent items to see everything, including all emails you have sent, receive, or even filed away.

Some, however, would like all sent items to be in their inbox all the time as soon as they are sent, without having to move an item to inbox each time.  This could be done by sending a BCC to yourself each time you send a message.  It also has the unfortunate affect of doubling the amount of mail you are saving.

I found an interesting work around to this dilemma.  You can create a filter that will force Google to put all of your sent items going  forward into your inbox.  The filter should say that whenever an email is from your address, the action taken is "never send to spam".  The original purpose of this filter was to force emails from certain people to go always to your inbox, even if Google thinks it is spam.  Google does this by forcing such messages into the inbox.  This has the beneficial side effect of allowing you to create a rule that all mail sent by you should also go in your inbox.

Gmail Autocomplete Problem

If you are sending an email to someone, you may have gotten used to begin typing their name, then selecting it from the list of suggestions that comes up.  Please be careful in selecting the name.

Last week Google made a change to the way it sorts name suggestions.  Here is an article about the problem.

As a result, some users are complaining that a name that used to show up first on the list is now showing up further down the list, or not at all.  Some people have been selecting the first name without double checking that it is the correct address.  This can mean the email is not delivered to the intended recipient.

When you select a name, make sure the address looks right. Don't just look at the name. You may be sending to the user's home email, or in some cases to an alias that we created.  Or you may be sending to some other unintended address.

Back in the days of GroupWise, the system sometimes added a mailbox name and post office name between the user name and the @ sign.  As a result, most of our users have an alias with that information.  This allows users outside the firm that have that mistaken address in their contacts to be able to hit reply and still be able to reach the intended recipient.  With these recent changes, that alias sometimes comes up first.  If you send to it, it will usually work, but it may make it harder for you if you later search by address to find something you sent.  It may also affect the recipient's use of filters.  In short, make sure you are sending to the correct address.

Update: Google has apparently now fixed the sorting problem, but it's still a good idea to double check the address before sending.

Appointments

You may have already received appointment requests via email.  You are directed to respond in the email yes, no, or maybe to a meeting or other event.  If you respond "yes" the appointment is added to your calendar automatically.

Perhaps you have also figured out how to send such invitations.  If not, here is how.

In your Gmail calendar, create a new appointment, filling in all the details about it, as well as the date and time.  Over to the right, you will see an option to add "guests" to your event.  Enter the emails of people you wish to invite.  When you save the appointment, you will be prompted to send invitations to your guests.  If you select "yes" they will get the emails that allow them to add the event to to their calendars with a single click.

By default, guests are able to see the guest list and invite others.  If you leave these selected, recipients will be able to see the email addresses of others sent the same invitation and will also be able to forward the invitation to third parties who will also be able to join the event and see other addresses.  If you don't want this to happen, make sure to uncheck those options.  Also, there is an option, unchecked by default to let users modify the event.  This gives all recipients the ability to alter all aspects of the event, including date, time, location, or description.  These changes will be updated for everyone who received the invitation.  I recommend this option be left unchecked in most cases.

This will work even if your guests are not using Gmail.  The calendaring system used is an industry standard supported by most modern system.  If the recipient uses Outlook, or another online mail program like Yahoo or Hotmail, the system should work the same.  If the recipient does not have an up to date system, they will still receive an email with the information.  They just won't be able to transfer it to a calendar.  Users should be able to respond to such invitations on their smart phones as well as on a regular computer.

If you are planning a meeting or arranging an event, this is often much better than sending a regular email.  All responses are kept together in one place, and everyone has the event added to their calendar.  It avoid multiple replies and the back and forth that fills up your inbox with multiple messages where one would do.