SharePoint as an email archive

Frederik Kirial

Frederik Kirial

Product Owner at Orbit Online A/S

Published

3. marts 2026

Why not just store emails in SharePoint?

You can store your emails in SharePoint. The real question is whether you will be able to find them again.

At first glance, the arguments make sense:

• ”Then we have documentation on emails in the context of our other documents.”
• ”We already pay for data storage in SharePoint, so it is basically free server space.”

We understand that. But.

If you have ever needed to retrieve an email from your SharePoint solution, you have probably experienced how slow it can be – and how difficult it is to find the right email.

There is a reason for that

SharePoint is not designed to handle emails. It can do many things, but it does not have a built-in understanding of email metadata such as sender, recipient, thread, signature, and timeline.

The same applies to your active inboxes, where all incoming and outgoing emails are automatically stored via Exchange. They are retained, but not necessarily structured in a way that makes them easy to work with.

So how does that show up in practice?

• Archiving an email often becomes a time-consuming process within a complex folder structure.
• The SharePoint search function is slow and often imprecise.

Using SharePoint as an email archive is a difficult task. It is a bit like hammering in a nail with a screwdriver. It can be done, but it is not ideal for the tool, the task, or the outcome.

Metadata is underestimated in digital businesses

Another important dimension is the value embedded in your email data.

1. How do you measure the quality of your collaborations?
2. How do you identify time-consuming processes in your projects?
3. How do you detect patterns in errors, delays, or recurring challenges?

The answers are often found in the communication with customers and partners. But without a system that understands and works with email data, you miss out on that insight.

Email data can, for example, be used to:

• Provide insight into the sentiment within a project
• Identify patterns in areas such as invoicing, delivery errors, or delays
• Support stronger documentation and learning across cases

When emails are simply stored as files in a document library, they are reduced to static documents. In doing so, you lose the context and structure that make data valuable.

Data-sovereign email archive

If you are working with a digitalisation strategy where data sovereignty and control are key priorities, it is worth considering whether SharePoint is the right tool to use as an email archive.

Emails are not just documentation, but business-critical communication.

We have created a three-step guide to help you move closer to a data-sovereign setup. At its core, it is about protecting your business.

So, can you store emails in SharePoint?

Yes, you can store emails in SharePoint.

But then you are also making an active decision that emails should not be easily accessible or contribute strategically to the business.