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Archive your email messages and delivery logs to any S3-compatible object storage service for long-term retention beyond AhaSend’s 30-day limit. This feature is essential for legal compliance, audit requirements, and internal retention policies that require extended email archiving.
Enterprise Feature: S3 Object Storage archiving is available exclusively on Enterprise plans. Contact our sales team to upgrade your account.
Extended Compliance: While AhaSend retains message data for up to 30 days, S3 archiving provides unlimited retention for industries with strict compliance requirements.

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Why Use S3 Archiving?

S3-compatible object storage provides a cost-effective solution for long-term email archiving:

Legal Compliance

Meet regulatory requirements for email retention in finance, healthcare, and legal industries

Cost-Effective Storage

Store unlimited email data at low cost with S3-compatible providers

Complete Control

Maintain full ownership and control over your archived email data

Easy Retrieval

Organized directory structure makes finding specific emails simple

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Requirements

Before enabling S3 archiving, ensure you meet these prerequisites:
Message Data Retention Requirements:
  • Message data retention must be enabled in your AhaSend account
  • Minimum 1-day retention required for AhaSend to process and archive messages
  • Configure retention periods in your account settings
Why 1-Day Minimum: AhaSend needs time to process messages and transfer them to your S3 storage before local deletion.
Supported Storage Providers:
  • Amazon AWS S3 - The original and most feature-complete option
  • Backblaze B2 - Cost-effective alternative with S3-compatible API
  • DigitalOcean Spaces - Developer-friendly with predictable pricing
  • Wasabi - High-performance storage with unlimited egress
  • MinIO - Self-hosted S3-compatible storage solution
Required Credentials:
  • S3 endpoint URL (HTTPS recommended for security)
  • Bucket name (must be pre-created)
  • Access key and secret key with write permissions

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Setting Up S3 Archiving

Configure S3 archiving in your AhaSend account settings:

Create S3 Bucket

Set up your storage bucket:
  1. Create a new bucket in your S3-compatible storage provider
  2. Configure permissions to allow write access for your credentials
  3. Note the bucket name and endpoint URL for configuration
Bucket Naming: Use descriptive names like company-email-archive or ahasend-messages-2024 for easy identification.

Generate Access Credentials

Obtain S3 credentials from your provider:
  • Access Key ID - Identifies your account/user
  • Secret Access Key - Authenticates API requests
  • Endpoint URL - Provider-specific S3 API endpoint
Security: Use dedicated credentials with minimal permissions (write-only to your archive bucket).

Configure AhaSend

Enable S3 archiving in your AhaSend dashboard:
  1. Navigate to Account Settings → S3 Retention
  2. Enter configuration details:
    • Endpoint URL: Your provider’s S3 API endpoint (use HTTPS)
    • Bucket Name: Name of your pre-created bucket
    • Access Key: Your S3 access key ID
    • Secret Key: Your S3 secret access key
  3. Test the connection to verify configuration
  4. Save settings to enable archiving

Verify Setup

Confirm archiving is working:
  1. Send a test email through AhaSend
  2. Wait for processing (typically within hours)
  3. Check your S3 bucket for archived files
  4. Verify file structure matches expected format

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File Organization Structure

AhaSend organizes archived messages in a logical directory structure for easy navigation and retrieval:

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Directory Pattern

RECIPIENT_EMAIL_ADDRESS/YYYY-MM-DD/MESSAGE_ID.eml
RECIPIENT_EMAIL_ADDRESS/YYYY-MM-DD/MESSAGE_ID.logs.csv

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Email Address Formatting

Special characters in email addresses are replaced for S3 compatibility: Character Replacements:
  • @ symbol becomes _AT_
  • + symbol becomes _PLUS_
Examples:

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Complete Example Structure

my-email-archive/
├── john_AT_example.com/
│   ├── 2024-01-15/
│   │   ├── msg_abc123.eml
│   │   └── msg_abc123.logs.csv
│   └── 2024-01-16/
│       ├── msg_def456.eml
│       └── msg_def456.logs.csv
├── support_AT_mycompany.org/
│   └── 2024-01-15/
│       ├── msg_ghi789.eml
│       └── msg_ghi789.logs.csv
└── user_PLUS_tag_AT_example.com/
    └── 2024-01-15/
        ├── msg_jkl012.eml
        └── msg_jkl012.logs.csv

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Archived File Formats

AhaSend saves two types of files for each message:
Complete email content in standard EML format:
  • All email headers (From, To, Subject, Date, etc.)
  • HTML body content
  • Plain text body content
  • All file attachments (base64 encoded)
  • Original message structure preserved
Benefits:
  • Industry-standard format readable by most email clients
  • Contains complete message for legal/audit purposes
  • Can be imported into email clients for viewing
Detailed delivery attempt history in CSV format:
  • Timestamp of each delivery attempt
  • Event type (Delivery, Bounce, Transient Failure, etc.)
  • Complete server response messages
  • Chronological record of all delivery events
Example CSV content:
"2024/06/18 16:07:15","Delivery","OK 1718732564 - Message delivered successfully"
"2024/06/17 11:52:52","Bounce","The email account does not exist. Please check the recipient's email address"
"2024/06/13 13:00:31","TransientFailure","The recipient's inbox is out of storage space"

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Provider-Specific Configuration

Configuration:
  • Endpoint: https://s3.[region].amazonaws.com
  • Bucket: Your S3 bucket name
  • Credentials: IAM user with S3 write permissions
Example Endpoint URLs:
  • US East: https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com
  • EU West: https://s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com
IAM Policy Example:
{
  "Version": "2012-10-17",
  "Statement": [
    {
      "Effect": "Allow",
      "Action": ["s3:PutObject"],
      "Resource": "arn:aws:s3:::your-bucket-name/*"
    }
  ]
}
Configuration:
  • Endpoint: https://s3.[region].backblazeb2.com
  • Bucket: Your B2 bucket name
  • Credentials: Application keys with write access
Benefits:
  • Cost-effective storage pricing
  • Free egress for the first 1GB per day
  • S3-compatible API
Configuration:
  • Endpoint: https://[region].digitaloceanspaces.com
  • Bucket: Your Spaces name
  • Credentials: Spaces access keys
Example Endpoints:
  • New York: https://nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com
  • San Francisco: https://sfo3.digitaloceanspaces.com

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Best Practices

Optimize costs and organization:
  • Use lifecycle policies to transition older data to cheaper storage tiers
  • Implement bucket versioning for data protection
  • Set up cross-region replication for critical archives
  • Monitor storage usage and costs regularly
Example Lifecycle Policy:
  • Transition to Infrequent Access after 30 days
  • Move to Glacier after 1 year
  • Delete after legal retention period expires
Protect your archived data:
  • Use HTTPS endpoints for all API communications
  • Enable bucket encryption at rest
  • Implement least-privilege access policies
  • Regular audit of access logs and permissions
  • Consider bucket policies to restrict access by IP
Access Control:
  • Create dedicated IAM users/keys for AhaSend integration
  • Rotate access keys periodically
  • Monitor for unauthorized access attempts
Meet regulatory requirements:
  • Document your retention policies and procedures
  • Implement automated deletion based on legal requirements
  • Maintain audit trails of data access and modifications
  • Consider legal hold processes for litigation
Retention Planning:
  • Define retention periods by message type or sender
  • Implement automated cleanup processes
  • Document compliance procedures for auditors

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Troubleshooting

Common configuration problems:
  • Invalid endpoint URL: Verify the correct S3 endpoint for your provider and region
  • Incorrect credentials: Double-check access key and secret key
  • Bucket permissions: Ensure write access is granted to your credentials
  • Network connectivity: Test HTTPS connectivity to the endpoint
Testing Connection:
# Test endpoint connectivity
curl -I https://your-s3-endpoint.com

# Verify bucket access with AWS CLI
aws s3 ls s3://your-bucket-name --endpoint-url=https://your-endpoint
Why messages might not be archived:
  • Retention disabled: Message data retention must be enabled
  • Insufficient retention period: Minimum 1-day retention required
  • S3 configuration errors: Check endpoint, credentials, and bucket name
  • Processing delays: Archives typically appear within hours, not immediately
Verification Steps:
  1. Check message data retention settings
  2. Verify S3 configuration in account settings
  3. Review AhaSend logs for archiving errors
  4. Test with a new email to confirm setup
Problems accessing archived files:
  • Permission errors: Verify read access to your S3 bucket
  • File path confusion: Remember @ becomes _AT_ and + becomes _PLUS_ in directory names
  • Date format: Ensure you’re using YYYY-MM-DD format
  • Case sensitivity: S3 object names are case-sensitive
File Retrieval Examples:
# Download specific message (standard email)
aws s3 cp s3://your-bucket/john_AT_example.com/2024-01-15/msg_abc123.eml ./

# Download message with + character in email
aws s3 cp s3://your-bucket/user_PLUS_tag_AT_example.com/2024-01-15/msg_def456.eml ./

# List all messages for a recipient
aws s3 ls s3://your-bucket/john_AT_example.com/ --recursive
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