Customer attachments remain after the support case is closed

Inventory the files and their real locations

List the attachment categories your support channel actually receives, then map where each category ends up: the ticket system, staff mailboxes, local downloads, shared drives and any exports or reports that embedded them. Backups and archives belong on the map as items for their system owner to assess, not as copies you can personally clear.

Assume duplicates until shown otherwise. A file attached to a ticket often also exists in the notification email, in the sender's outbox and on someone's desktop. Closing the case changes none of these locations, which is why case closure cannot double as a retention decision.

Record the original purpose for each category

For each category, write down why the business requested or accepted the file: to see a checkout error, to verify an order question, to read a document the customer chose to send. The purpose is the anchor for every later decision, because retention that cannot be traced to a purpose is retention by habit.

Where the original purpose is unclear, mark the category unresolved rather than inventing a justification. That unresolved mark is itself useful: it usually identifies a prompt or saved reply that asks customers for material the business never defined a need for, which is an intake problem to fix.

Decide continuing need per category

The UK ICO's storage-limitation guidance frames retention as keeping personal information no longer than necessary, justified by purpose and reviewed, and it notes that moving data to offline storage is not erasure. The guidance is UK-specific and under review, and it sets no universal period; its value here is the discipline of asking whether a current purpose exists for each category.

Give each category one of three decisions: delete because the purpose is spent, restrict and retain with a stated reason and an owner, or unresolved pending a named question. Just-in-case is not a reason, and a blanket keep-everything rule is a decision to accumulate risk without a purpose.

Check holds before deleting

Before any deletion, confirm whether a verified legal, tax or contractual hold covers the category. Verified means a named person confirmed it against the actual obligation; a vague sense that records should be kept is not a hold, and a hold is not a reason to retain categories it does not cover. Jurisdiction-specific retention questions go to qualified review.

Files under a verified hold are preserved through the authorized process with access restricted appropriately. Files outside any hold and without a continuing purpose move to deletion. Both directions need the same care, because deleting under a hold and retaining without need are both failures of the register.

Execute, document and prevent recurrence

Record the execution for each location: date, method and who confirmed it. Clearing the ticket copy while the mailbox copy and a downloaded file remain is not disposition. Where a location cannot be cleared, such as a backup cycle, record the owner's stated handling instead of claiming completion.

Close the loop at intake: adjust the support prompts and saved replies so categories with no defined purpose stop being requested. For a Prism consultation about the public wording around what you ask customers to send, describe the website, the research-only catalog and the prompt at issue, without attachments or customer content in the public form; scope, responsibilities, fees and terms are agreed before work.

Attachment disposition register

Complete one register per support channel, with one line per file category. Record decisions and executions, never attachment contents. A category without a defined purpose or a confirmed hold check stays unresolved. The final column is left for your dated record and owner.

Worksheet entries are not submitted by Prism’s worksheet and are not saved by the site. Use record types, availability, anonymized observations, or match/mismatch results. Do not enter government identifiers, customer names or addresses, customer messages, receipt-access links, card or bank details, passwords, or keys. Send sensitive documents only through the provider’s verified secure channel.

These are temporary notes. Leaving or reloading this page may clear them. Worksheet entries are not sent automatically. If you copy notes into the consultation message and submit the form, Prism receives them as part of your request.