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us Legal, police, prison & official contact litigation hold notice • preservation letter • do not delete texts • told not to destroy records • preserve messages and photos • keep chat history • stop deleting now • auto delete messages turned on • disappearing messages turned on • preserve electronically stored info • photos and videos evidence • social media dms case • work email legal hold • slack teams messages hold • cloud storage deletion risk • shared device messages • worried i already deleted • notice to preserve evidence

What to do if…
you receive a notice that you must not destroy messages, photos, or records relevant to a case

Short answer

Immediately stop deleting anything connected to the matter and turn off auto-delete/disappearing-message settings. Then get the notice to your lawyer (or your company’s legal team) and follow the hold instructions.

Do not do these things

  • Don’t delete, edit, “clean up,” or selectively remove texts, DMs, photos, emails, files, call logs, notes, or social posts connected to the issue.
  • Don’t factory-reset devices, wipe drives, replace phones, or do a data migration that could erase or overwrite information.
  • Don’t turn on (or expand) disappearing messages/auto-delete; do turn them off if they’re already on.
  • Don’t keep only screenshots while deleting originals (screenshots can lose context/metadata).
  • Don’t create rewritten summaries and treat them as originals, or backdate anything.
  • Don’t ask anyone else to delete things for you.

What to do now

  1. Freeze deletion and auto-deletion immediately.
    • Turn off disappearing/auto-delete in any app you used for this.
    • Disable “cleanup” tools that automatically remove old photos, downloads, or chats.
  2. Preserve devices and accounts “as-is.”
    • Keep the phones, computers, tablets, external drives, and account logins safe.
    • Avoid resets, wipes, and “upgrade/migration” steps until you have instructions.
  3. Skim the notice for scope (then stop).
    • Note the date range, people/topics, and where data might exist (texting apps, email, cloud storage, social media, work chat, backups).
    • If it’s unclear, preserve broadly.
  4. Notify the right person the same day (work/organization matters).
    • Forward it to your legal department/General Counsel or the contact named in the notice.
    • Ask (in writing) what to do about company systems (Microsoft 365/Google Workspace, Slack/Teams, shared drives, retention settings).
  5. Start a short preservation log.
    • Record when you got the notice and what you did to stop deletion (which settings you turned off; which devices you set aside).
    • Keep it factual and dated.
  6. Avoid accidental loss from syncing—don’t “test” anything.
    • If you’re worried one device’s change will sync everywhere, stop making changes and get instructions before toggling sync/retention settings.
    • Do not delete “as a test” to see what happens.
  7. Don’t curate—just preserve.
    • Right now, don’t decide what’s “important.” Keep potentially relevant material intact until your lawyer/legal team tells you how they want collection handled.
  8. If law enforcement is involved, keep it simple and counsel-led if possible.
    • Preserve what you have. If you have a lawyer (or a public defender/appointed counsel), route questions through them.
    • If you don’t have counsel, it’s safer to say you’re preserving everything and seeking advice than to guess at requirements.

What can wait

  • You do not need to decide today whether to settle, file a claim, plead, or give a detailed narrative.
  • You do not need to produce documents immediately unless you have a court order/subpoena with a deadline (and even then, get advice first).
  • You do not need to reorganize or “clean” files—focus on preventing deletion and alteration.

Important reassurance

A litigation hold/preservation notice can be routine once a dispute is likely. Taking calm, basic preservation steps quickly is often the most protective thing you can do before you fully understand the case.

Scope note

This guide covers first steps to prevent irreversible mistakes (loss or alteration of records). Next steps—collection, review, and production—depend on the case and should be directed by a lawyer or the notice’s contact person.

Important note

This is general information, not legal advice. Rules and expectations vary by court, state, and the type of matter (civil, criminal, employment, regulatory). If you think something relevant was already deleted, don’t try to “fix” it yourself—write down what happened and get legal advice promptly.

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