May 18th, 2026
New
Improved
Fixed
New
Until now, attachments inside emails were invisible to RedactBox. You could see that an email had a PDF or a Word doc bolted on, but you couldn't open it, read it, or redact it without leaving the platform. That changes today. Every supported attachment is now first-class: preview it in-app or download it. PDF attachments can also be imported into your project as a document and redacted alongside everything else — more document types are on the way.
A dedicated Attachments tab
Open any email and you'll find an Attachments tab next to Body and Headers. Files appear in a left-rail list with their type and size. Pick a file and the right pane previews it instantly.
- PDFs
- Images — JPG, PNG, GIF, WebP, BMP
- Word documents — .docx, with formatting and tables intact
- Spreadsheets — .xlsx and .xls, with each sheet accessible from a tab strip
- Plain text and code — .txt, .md, .log, .json, .xml, .csv
- Inline images — the small images embedded inside an email body, surfaced in their own expander
For file types we can't safely render in the browser, the preview pane shows a clear "No preview" message with a download button.
Download
Every attachment has a Download button in both the rail and the preview header. The button shows clear feedback as it works — Download → Downloading → Downloaded — so you can see at a glance that your click did something.
Attachments over 50 MB aren't available to download — if you see a Too large badge, ask the sender to share the file through a transfer service instead.
Import a PDF as a project document
Some PDF attachments need redacting in their own right — a contract, a statement, a report. Open any PDF attachment and you'll see an Add to project split-button next to Download:
- Add & keep — imports the PDF and marks it as Kept, so it shows up in Redact mode straight away
- Add untriaged — imports it without marking it Kept, so you can handle it in Triage mode later
Imported PDFs carry a link back to the email they came from, so you can always trace where a document originated. From there they behave like any other document — same search and redact tools, same export pipeline.
This is PDF-only to start with. Over the coming releases we'll extend it to other known document types — Word documents, spreadsheets, presentations — converted into PDFs on the way in and imported into your project automatically, so you can redact the underlying content the same way you would any other document.
Smoother PDF viewer for big documents
The PDF viewer now handles very large documents — hundreds of pages — without slowing down or stuttering as you scroll.
Exports — faster, clearer, and far more reliable
If you've ever kicked off a big export and wondered whether it was actually doing anything, this one's for you. We've reworked the export pipeline end-to-end so large jobs finish reliably and you can see exactly where they are at every stage.
- ZIP packaging is now visible — the Tasks panel now shows the packaging and download-prep phases, not just the redact phase. No more "stuck at 100%" mystery.
- Accurate progress counts — the "X of Y" counter no longer drifts out of sync across multi-batch exports. It reflects what's actually been processed.
- Large exports complete reliably — exports of huge mailboxes used to occasionally stall during ZIP assembly. They now upload in resumable chunks and finish cleanly.
- Retry stuck exports — on the rare occasion an export gets stuck, a Retry button appears in the Tasks panel so you can re-run it yourself instead of waiting for support.
- Tell your exports apart — when you have multiple exports running, each one now shows its project name and a unique label so you can see which is which at a glance.
- Tidier Tasks panel — friendlier progress UI, no duplicate spinners, clearer status text.
Also in this release
A handful of other improvements and fixes have rolled out alongside the attachments work:
- Word list manager, redesigned — cleaner layout, easier to scan, and shared word lists now refresh across every project the moment you edit them.
- Faster import for large mailboxes — mbox and EML files parse significantly faster, especially on emails with very long bodies.
- UK date format by default — email header dates in generated PDFs now render as DD/MM/YYYY with 24-hour time.
- More reliable imports — interrupted or stuck imports recover cleanly. If a parse fails mid-flight, another worker picks it up automatically rather than leaving the file in limbo.
Improved
- Auto-Redact in this item now behaves consistently with Auto-Redact across all items — same match counts, same controls, same undo, whichever scope you pick.
- Cleaner confirmation when removing an auto-redaction — for redactions applied to a single item, you now get a clear single-button Remove instead of an unnecessary "Remove from this item / all items" prompt.
- Bulk-redaction progress shows Searching page X of Y while it scans and Redacting N of M occurrences while it applies, so you can see exactly where it is.
- BETA tag removed from Auto-Redact dialogs.
Fixes
- Multi-word redactions are now applied consistently on export — a specific combination of conditions could previously cause them to be missed.
- Multi-word redaction rectangles now land precisely on the matched text, including across line wraps.
- Phantom duplicate emails no longer appear when the mbox parser hits a particular race condition on very large files.
- Project document counts update immediately when files are deleted, instead of needing a refresh.
- Project documents appear in the sidebar straight after importing a PDF, with no page refresh needed.
- The PDF viewer no longer occasionally throws a "detached buffer" error when switching previews quickly.
- Background platform hardening — stricter ownership checks across project, file, and attachment routes, and tighter rate limiting on Cloud Run. You won't see this, but it keeps your data where it belongs.
As always, please give us feedback here if you'd like to suggest features or flag bugs. Plenty more on the way.
May 11th, 2026
New
Improved
Fixed
New
Search & Redact is the most-used tool in RedactBox, so we've spent the last few weeks taking it apart and putting it back together. The result is a faster, more honest workspace for working through matches, plus a new Patterns mode that handles the most common PII categories with a single click.
A new two-pane workspace
The dialogue now splits into a result list on the left and a full match preview on the right. Click any row and the preview fills instantly with the snippets you already had on the row, then the rest of the matches stream in behind it — no more waiting on a blank pane.
Match N of M · In subject / body / from / to — every snippet now tells you which field it came from, so you know at a glance whether a hit is in the subject line, the body, or a recipient
Position scrubber — a small bar under each snippet shows roughly where in the document the match falls (Start ──●── End). Hover for a tooltip like "42% through — in the first half"
Cascading entry — new matches fade in subtly rather than appearing all at once
Recent searches — the recent-search chips actually work now. Your last queries are recorded and one-click re-runnable
Shift+click multi-select — pick a range of rows in one go to include or exclude in bulk
Skip individual matches — uncheck any snippet card to leave that single match alone; the count drops by one for that item, the rest still go through
Skip a value across the whole project — in Patterns mode, click any highlighted match in a snippet to skip every other instance of that exact value too. Perfect for whitelisting your own company domain when running an Email-addresses sweep, or excluding a known internal phone number
Common Patterns — one click for the usual suspects
A new Patterns tab sits next to Type term and Word list. Pick a chip, and we run a project-wide search for that pattern. You review the matches and redact in one go. The same skip controls apply — uncheck individual snippets, exclude whole items, or click any highlighted match to skip every instance of that exact value project-wide.
Email addresses
UK phone numbers
UK postcodes
National Insurance numbers
NHS numbers
Sort codes
Credit card numbers (Luhn-validated to cut false positives)
A note on accuracy: these are heuristic searches. Credit cards are validated, but the others can produce false positives, so always review before redacting. We picked categories where a quick scan beats hunting term-by-term.
Per-term match flags on word lists
Word lists no longer treat every term the same. Each term in a list can now carry its own case-sensitive and whole-word flags. Add "Smith" as case-sensitive, and it won't redact "smith" or "blacksmith"; add an email domain as case-insensitive in the same list. The list also has its own defaults, so you don't have to set them per term.
Word-list drill-in
Click any term inside a word list, and you now drop into a read-only inspector scoped to just that term — same snippet layout, same field labels, same position bar. Useful when you want to sanity-check what a single entry is matching across a project before you commit to redacting it.
Project palette and Manage Projects
The old project dropdown has been replaced with a project palette (Ctrl/Cmd + K from anywhere in the console). Type a few characters to jump straight to a project or SAR — no more scrolling through a long menu.
Alongside it, a new Manage Projects page shows every project as a card with a three-segment progress heatmap (triaged, redacted, approved). Open it from the palette, and you can see at a glance which projects need attention.
Responsive sizing
The Search & Redact dialogue now scales with the viewport. Bigger monitors show more matches without scrolling (up to 1500 × 1300px); smaller screens still get a usable layout. No more cramped result lists on a 27" display.
Improved
Snippet rendering is significantly faster on large result sets — no more freeze on the loading bar when a search returns thousands of hits
Smoother pattern progress — the bulk progress bar updates in real time as pages are scanned, rather than jumping from 0% to 100% at the end
Field-source labels replace "Page N" — we'd been trialling per-page PDF text extraction to tell you which page a match was on. It turned out to be too costly and fragile for what it gave you back, so we pulled it. The new "Match N of M · In <field>" plus position bar tells you where a match is in a more useful way, with none of the extraction overhead
Faster Manage Projects load on accounts with lots of projects — counts now come back in a single query instead of one per project
Truncation warnings — if a pattern search hits the 200,000-match safety cap, we now warn you so you can narrow the scope and re-run rather than silently miss the remainder
Fixes
Pattern redactions no longer appear as solid red bars in the single-email preview — they render as the same purple overlay as word-list matches, and are only applied at export
Word-list bulks now honour each term's case-sensitive and whole-word flags at export time
Cross-project guard on word-list bulk redact — running a list against the wrong project is now blocked
Recent-search chips populate correctly from the last few searches in your session
All of the information above is also available in our Knowledge Centre!
https://help.redactbox.co.uk/en
As always, hit the feedback portal to tell us what's missing or what could be sharper.
April 29th, 2026
New
Fixed
New
One of the most-requested features since launch: proper duplicate detection across files. When you upload a Sent folder and an Inbox, or two overlapping date-range exports, the same email typically appears in more than one file. RedactBox now automatically finds those copies using each email's Message-ID header and provides a wizard to review and remove them — without touching the copy you want to keep.
How you'll know
When duplicates exist in a project, a banner appears above the email list summarising how many items are affected. Counts grow live as each file finishes parsing, so you don't have to wait for every PDF to generate before seeing the first number.
Banner — live count of items with copies, with a Review duplicates button
Inline chips — every affected email row shows an Original or Duplicates chip so you can see at a glance which copies are keepers
Filter — turn on Needs duplicate review in the filter panel to narrow the list to unresolved groups
The Manage Duplicates wizard
Open it from the banner or Tools → Manage Duplicates. Three tabs cover every state of a group:
Active — a three-step wizard: scan results, review the groups, confirm
Resolved — everything you've already handled, with a per-row Undo
Dismissed — groups you chose to ignore, with a Restore action
Inside the Review step, you can:
Resolve a single group from its inline Resolve button
Select multiple groups and resolve them together
Preview any email inline before making the call
Dismiss a group you don't want to act on now
Undo all with an inline two-click confirm
Quick-resolve chip
You don't have to open the full wizard for every group. Click the yellow Duplicates chip beside an email, and a popover shows which file is being kept, why (Smart pick, Newest, or Oldest badge), and a Resolve duplicate button. Tick Also approve the original if you want the kept copy marked Processed in one go.
Smart pick, Newest, Oldest
A new Duplicates section in Settings lets you choose how RedactBox picks which copy to keep:
Smart pick (recommended) — keeps whichever copy has the most text and attachments. Usually, the most complete version, since emails lose content as they're forwarded or quoted.
Keep newest — always keeps the most recent copy
Keep oldest — always keeps the earliest copy. Useful for compliance workflows where the original send date matters.
Changing keep mode immediately re-assigns the Original across every unresolved group. Already-resolved groups are left alone.
Auto-approve the kept original
A second setting controls what happens to the copy you keep. Off by default — the kept copy stays in its current state, and you approve it yourself. On — it's marked Processed automatically the moment you resolve the group. Per-action override from the popover is always available.
Re-emerged groups
If you dismiss a group and later upload a file containing another copy of the same email, RedactBox flags the group as re-emerged on the Active tab so it comes back to your attention. No manual restore needed.
Export integration
Duplicates you trashed during review are automatically excluded from every export — ZIP, PDF, bulk. Only the copy you kept appears in the output. Dismissed groups have no effect on exports; all copies stay in.
Also in this release
Exports rebuilt for bigger projects — large projects no longer time out or stall:
Filter before you export — pick only the emails that match your current filter
Branded summary PDF included in every export ZIP
The progress bar only appears for exports of 200+ emails; smaller exports just finish
Cancel actually cancels — no ghost completions in the background
Other improvements
Uploads up to 3 GB now work end-to-end
PST files no longer crash during import
Exclude / negation operators in email filters (does not contain, is not, does not equal)
Bigger caps on word lists and bulk redaction payloads
Auto-redact → All Emails is out of beta — BETA tag removed
Fixes
Word list redaction shows correct aggregate counts with proper progress and working undo
Stripe subscription upgrades and downgrades handle more edge cases cleanly
Quick filters in Triage no longer flash through stale data when switching files
The "file processed" toast no longer fires on files already processed before you opened the app
All of the information above is also available in our Knowledge Centre!
https://help.redactbox.co.uk/en
As always, hit the feedback portal to tell us what's missing or what could be sharper.
March 31st, 2026
New
Improved
Fixed
Word Lists
Create reusable lists of terms for bulk search and redaction. Paste comma-separated values or upload a CSV — terms are automatically split and deduplicated. Save lists per project and apply them in Search & Redact with one click.
Create, edit, duplicate, and delete word lists from the Tools > Word Lists manager
Paste comma-separated or newline-separated terms — automatically parsed on paste
Import terms from CSV or TXT files
Export lists as TXT for sharing across projects
Apply a word list in Search & Redact to search all terms at once across every file
Bulk redact all matches from a word list in a single action
When to use it: You have a list of names, email addresses, or phrases that need to be redacted across a large case. Instead of searching one term at a time, paste your list and redact everything in one pass.
Redactions Manager
A new tool for viewing, searching, and removing redactions across your entire project. Open it from Tools > Redactions.
Grouped view (default): redactions collapsed by word — see how many times each term was redacted and across how many files
Individual view: every redaction as its own row with date, item, and comment
Click any row to expand and see which items were affected
Edit comments inline — click a comment cell to open a popover editor. Group comments update all redactions of that word at once
Click long text to expand it in place, with a copy button for easy extraction
Sort by any column, search across all redaction text, and paginate through large datasets
Remove individual redactions or undo an entire group with one click
Multi-File Selection
Select multiple files in the sidebar to view all their items in a single list. Hold Ctrl (or Cmd on Mac) and click to toggle individual files, or
Shift+Click to select a range. A subtle visual hint appears when hovering with modifier keys held, so you know multi-select is active.
The file count chip now shows "2 of 5 selected" and doubles as a Select All / Deselect toggle — click it to select every visible file in one go.
All existing workflows — triage, redaction, bulk actions, select all pages, and export — work seamlessly across multi-file selections.
PDF Viewer Fullscreen
A new full-screen button in the PDF viewer header expands the viewer to fill the entire panel, hiding the email list. Arrow keys navigate between items while in
full-screen. Clicking a file or closing the viewer automatically exits full-screen.
Improved
Faster, Smoother Interface
We've rebuilt the data layer under the hood. Mode switching, pagination, sorting, and filtering are now significantly faster with no loading flash between transitions — previous data stays visible while fresh data loads in the background.
Redaction counts now load in a single request instead of one per item, and triage actions show instant feedback before the server confirms.
Smarter Loading States
Loading indicators only appear when they're useful — a thin progress bar shows during background refreshes, but cached data stays visible throughout. No more blank
screens or flickering stats when switching modes.
Quick Filters
Quick filter chips in Triage mode now respond instantly. Switching files properly clears the active filter, and triaging an item immediately updates filtered views so you don't need to refresh.
Fixed
Bulk redaction progress bar now updates in real time
Redaction counts refresh across all visible items when adding or removing redactions
Sidebar stats no longer flash incorrect values when switching modes
Uploading a file no longer auto-selects it while still processing
Project reset fully clears the interface without needing a page refresh
Filter chip text alignment corrected in dark mode
Switching projects no longer shows a stale "Failed to load emails" error
Quick filters no longer carry over when switching files
PDF conversion toast no longer fires on already-completed files
As always, please give us feedback here if you would like to suggest features for us to work on, as well as report any bugs you may find with the application.
March 4th, 2026
New
New: Area-Based Redaction
Not everything in a document is selectable text. Scanned pages, embedded images, signatures, logos, and handwritten notes — until now, these couldn't be redacted. With area-based redaction, you can draw a rectangle over any part of the page to mark it for removal, without selecting any text.
Draw to redact — Click and drag to draw a rectangle over any part of the document, regardless of whether it contains selectable text
Orange highlight — Area redactions appear with a distinct orange overlay in previews, making them easy to distinguish from text-based redactions
Keyboard shortcuts — Press A to switch to area mode and T to switch back to text selection mode while in Redact view
Tool mode remembers your choice — Your selected mode stays active as you navigate between emails, so you don't have to keep switching back when redacting areas across multiple items
Solid black in exports — All redactions, including area-based ones, render as solid black bars in the final exported PDF
When to use it
A parent submits a Subject Access Request for their child's educational records. The school exports the relevant emails, but they're full of content that needs redacting before disclosure — scanned handwritten teacher notes attached to emails, photos embedded in safeguarding reports, other children's names appearing in screenshot images of the school's MIS system, and a staff member's signature block with a personal mobile number.
None of that is selectable text, so the standard text redaction tool can't touch it. With area-based redaction, you press A to switch to area mode and start drawing rectangles — over the handwritten notes mentioning other pupils, over the photo in the safeguarding email, over the MIS screenshot showing other children's data, over the signature with the personal number. As you navigate through each email, the tool stays in area mode, so you can work through the batch without interruption. When you reach the typed emails, press T to switch back to text selection, then use Search & Redact to catch any remaining names throughout the project. Everything exports with solid black bars, ready for disclosure.
Check out our help centre for instructions on how to use Area Redaction!
https://help.redactbox.co.uk/en/articles/7805395-area-redaction
March 2nd, 2026
New
Improved
Fixed
New
Drag & drop anywhere — Drag files anywhere on the page to upload them, not just the sidebar. A polished full-page overlay appears showing supported formats and which project you're uploading to.
Smooth animations — The overlay fades in with a floating cloud icon and slides out smoothly when you drag away.
PDF drag & drop support — PDF files are now accepted via drag & drop (previously only worked through the file browser).
Improved
Clear Data moved to user menu — The reset/clear data button has been moved from the header toolbar into the user menu to prevent accidental clicks. It now asks you to type to confirm that you want to delete the data within your project.
Bulk redaction progress — The progress indicator no longer pushes the toolbar buttons around. It now appears cleanly in the header without shifting the workflow step, tools, or filter button.
Bulk redaction auto-dismiss — The progress notification now automatically dismisses after 20 seconds once complete, cancelled, or errored. You can still dismiss it manually at any time.
Upload dialog drag reliability — Fixed a flickering issue where the drag highlight would flash on and off when moving your cursor over the upload dialog's drop zone.
File size limit consistency — Drag & drop now accepts files up to 3 GB, matching the upload dialogue limit.
Action chip display — Fixed truncation and clipping of action chips in the email list and improved spacing.
Fixed
Fixed full-page drag overlay appearing behind the upload dialogue when it was already open.
Fixed dropping files while the upload dialogue was open, potentially triggering duplicate uploads.
Fixed clearData() error that could occur in Firefox when dropping files.
Added missing PDF icon in the upload dialogue file list.
March 2nd, 2026
New
Improved
Fixed
New Features
Attachment Visibility
Emails with attachments are now clearly flagged throughout the platform. A paperclip icon with attachment count appears in the email list, and you can see individual attachment filenames when viewing an email. There's also a new "Attachments" filter so you can quickly find emails that have attachments and handle them separately. Applies to all newly uploaded files.
Session Timeout Handling No more confusing "Failed to load" errors when your session expires. A clear overlay now appears prompting you to sign back in, so you always know exactly what's happening. Sessions last up to 2 hours before requiring re-authentication. After all, this is confidential data.
Sidebar Filtering in Review Mode The file sidebar now has an "Approved" filter that automatically activates in Redact mode, hiding files with no approved items. Keeps your workspace clean and focused on what matters. You can toggle it off any time to see everything.
File Type Filtering in Export A new file type dropdown in the Export step lets you filter by format (PDF, MBOX, EML, etc.) making it easier to find what you need in larger projects.
Export Pagination The Export view now includes pagination controls for projects with lots of files, so you're not scrolling through thousands of items.
Improvements
Auto-Redact Across Line Breaks Auto-Redact now finds text that wraps across two lines in PDFs. Email addresses, names, and other content that splits over a line boundary will now be picked up correctly.
Larger Text Selection for Redaction The text selection limit for manual redaction has been significantly increased — you can now select much larger blocks of text at once. Ideal for SAR work where you need to redact whole sections.
Export Redactions Filter The "Redactions Only" toggle in Export now properly hides files with 0 redactions instead of just changing the count label.
Dark Mode Polish Various dark mode consistency fixes across filter borders, overlays, and UI components.
Bug Fixes
Fixed selection not working after uploading a new file without refreshing
Fixed redaction overlay buttons not being clickable in certain stacking scenarios
Fixed duplicate auto-redact progress banner appearing in scroll content
Fixed false session expiry triggering on fresh login
Fixed support email (support@redactbox.co.uk) bouncing — DNS records corrected
Fixed password managers (1Password, LastPass, etc.) auto filling the export name field
Export name field now supports pressing Enter to start the export
February 14th, 2026
Improved
We've completely rebuilt the email filtering experience with powerful, granular controls that let you find exactly what you're looking for. If you have a big email archive then you can quickly filter
Filter by any field
Click the Filter button to open the new filter panel. Build precise queries by combining field, operator, and value — just like filtering a database table.
Stack multiple filter rules together — all conditions are applied simultaneously to narrow your results.
Unified toolbar
The toolbar has been redesigned into a clean, cohesive filter bar. In Triage mode, quick-access status pills sit right alongside the filter controls so you can jump to Unprocessed, Processed, Flagged, or Trashed emails with a single click.
Shift-click multi-select
Hold Shift and click to select a range of emails instantly. Combined with Ctrl/Cmd+click for toggling individual emails, bulk operations in Triage mode are now significantly faster.
Redesigned selection bar
When emails are selected, a refined action bar appears with Process, Flag, and Trash actions — visually consistent with the new filter bar for a unified look across the interface.
February 13th, 2026
New
Improved
What's New
Background Exports
Exports no longer lock you into a progress screen. Start an export and continue triaging or redacting — your work isn't interrupted.
Live Progress Tracking
The hourglass icon in the top-right shows active exports with a real-time progress bar. Hover over a running task to see a detailed console log of what's being processed.
Detailed Progress Console
Hover over any running export in the Tasks panel to reveal a live console log. See exactly what's being processed in real time — files, email counts, and processing speed — all in a compact terminal-style view that fades in smoothly on hover.
Download Notifications
When an export finishes, a notification dot appears on the hourglass icon. Click to open the Tasks panel and download your file. You'll also receive an email with a secure download link (valid for 24 hours).
Custom Export Names
You can now name your exports before starting them. The zip file and email will use your chosen name.
Task History
The Tasks panel shows your last 24 hours of exports — completed, failed, or cancelled. Retry failed exports with one click.
Email Preferences
Don't want export emails? Toggle them off in Settings > Notifications.
Improvements
Export view has been redesigned for better performance and responsiveness
Export button shows a brief "track progress in the top right" hint after starting
Download links are generated fresh on each click for improved security
February 6th, 2026
New
Improved
Fixed
New: Search & Redact
Our most requested feature is here. Search for any term across your entire project and redact every match with a single click.
Search a single email or search across all emails in your project
See exactly how many matches are found before you redact
Bulk redact all matches across thousands of emails in one operation
Real-time progress tracking shows you exactly what's happening
10-second undo after every redaction - just in case
Case sensitivity toggle - choose between case-sensitive or case-insensitive matching
Whole word matching - search for "John" without matching "Johnson"
Search history - your recent searches are saved for quick reuse
New: Redesigned Header & Tools Menu
Cleaner layout with a clear step-by-step workflow indicator
Search & Redact is front and centre in the header
New Tools menu in the workflow bar for quick access to Search & Redact
Keyboard shortcuts: Ctrl+Shift+F for Search & Redact
New: Email List Filter
Quickly filter your email list by sender, subject, or any keyword with Ctrl+F
Improved: File Management
You can now delete documents directly from your project
Better handling of stuck or failed uploads
Improved: UI Polish
Full dark mode support across the Search & Redact dialog
Cleaner settings page
Various visual improvements throughout the app
Improved: Auto Redact Reliability
Improved text matching accuracy - searches now find matches that span across line breaks and text boundaries
Better handling of special characters, smart quotes, and unicode text
Whole word matching option to avoid false positives (e.g. search "John" without matching "Johnson")
Faster search performance across large email projects with database-level optimisations
Added automated accuracy testing to catch regressions early
We're getting closer to removing the BETA label from bulk redaction - stay tuned