Privacy & data lifecycle
What Happens to Your Temporary Email Data After the Inbox Expires?
The timer reaches zero. The inbox closes. But 'I can no longer open it' and 'every stored record has already been physically deleted' are not the same event. To understand MailOnce privacy, follow the data itself — from an active Free inbox to closure, purge eligibility and final cleanup.
The record of a temporary inbox
Four states. Four different privacy questions.
01 · ACTIVE
Can I still use the inbox?
Yes, while valid access remains. Messages, detected OTP information and other inbox-owned records support the temporary-mail workflow during this stage.
02 · CLOSED
What changes when it expires or is deleted?
Normal access ends first. Closure is a logical boundary: the address is no longer an active inbox you should depend on reopening.
03 · PURGE ELIGIBLE
Why can data still exist after access ends?
For the current Free-inbox policy represented in the product source, closed inbox data becomes eligible for hard purge after a 24-hour retention interval. Eligibility is not the same as promising deletion at an exact minute.
04 · PHYSICALLY PURGED
What remains recoverable?
Once the owned data graph has been physically purged successfully, MailOnce has no application recovery path for those deleted database rows.
The first distinction
Expired vs deleted temporary inbox: what is the difference?
Expiry and deletion can both close an inbox from normal use, but closure and physical purge answer different questions. The user-facing question is whether the inbox is still active. The data-lifecycle question is whether the records behind that closed inbox have reached cleanup eligibility and whether cleanup has actually removed them.
That is why MailOnce should not describe expiry as instant physical erasure. The safer model is: active → closed → retention boundary → eligible cleanup → successful purge.
The 24-hour boundary
Why is inbox data not hard-deleted the instant it expires?
The current Free-inbox lifecycle uses a bounded closed-data retention interval before destructive cleanup eligibility. That separation lets cleanup coordinate safely with late or in-flight ingestion instead of treating the exact expiry instant as a destructive database event.
For this policy, the eligibility interval is 24 hours after closure. But eligible after 24 hours is deliberately different from guaranteed physically deleted at exactly 24:00:00. Actual removal depends on the cleanup process running and its safeguards succeeding.
Inventory before purge
What data is deleted when a Free temporary inbox is purged?
The purge is about the inbox-owned data graph, not merely hiding the inbox from the interface. The current lifecycle material identifies several kinds of records that belong to that graph.
Messages
Message records associated with the eligible inbox are part of the data removed by physical purge.
OTP data
OTP candidates and detection results derived inside the inbox workflow belong to the inbox-owned graph and are removed during eligible purge.
Attachment metadata
The current source describes attachment persistence as relational metadata; that metadata is removed with the eligible inbox graph during purge.
Linked address history
Address-history rows linked to the purged address are removed because they contain address-identifying evidence.
After the purge
Can you recover messages after a temporary inbox is purged?
Not through the MailOnce application once those owned database records have been physically purged. The lifecycle described here does not provide a recovery path for deleted rows. That is one reason a temporary inbox should never be treated as archival storage.
Do not confuse the pre-purge retention interval with a recovery promise either. Once normal inbox access has closed, plan as though the temporary task is over rather than depending on internal cleanup timing.
OTP
What happens to OTP codes when the inbox is deleted?
Detected OTP candidates and related results are part of the inbox-owned data lifecycle and are removed during eligible physical purge. Separately, the sender may invalidate an OTP much earlier; data retention never extends a code's validity.
ATTACHMENTS
What happens to attachments when the inbox is purged?
The current MailOnce lifecycle source specifically describes relational attachment metadata as part of the records removed with the inbox graph. It does not support a broader promise about storage forms that are not described there.
The trace of the address
Does MailOnce keep address history after an inbox is purged?
For address-history rows linked to the purged temporary address, the lifecycle source says they are removed because they contain address-identifying evidence. A history record before purge should not be mistaken for a way to reopen the expired mailbox or recover its messages.
What this lifecycle does — and does not — promise
The shortest accurate version
The inbox closes first. Closed Free data reaches purge eligibility after the retention boundary. Physical cleanup happens separately. After successful purge, the deleted application records are not recoverable through MailOnce.
Continue through the Knowledge Center
The data lifecycle starts with an inbox lifecycle
Continue with the access deadline, privacy boundary, or the decision to start a fresh temporary address for a new task.
Before cleanup
Inbox Lifecycle
Understand the user-facing deadline that closes normal access before later data cleanup takes place.
Follow inbox expiry →Reduce what you share
Protect Your Real Email
See how temporary addresses can limit exposure of your everyday mailbox during short-lived interactions.
Understand the privacy boundary →Start fresh
Create Temporary Email
Learn how a new temporary inbox starts a separate short-lived address and task context.
Create the right inbox →