Skip to content

Document management (DMS)

How to find and size your NetDocuments data.

Find how many documents and workspaces NetDocuments holds and how a full-history export works, with the client-consent rules that apply to matter files.

Get your data pricedAll guides

Find how much you have

  1. Ask a NetDocuments administrator to sign in, open the Hi menu at the top right and choose Admin. NetDocuments keeps content in a repository, in cabinets inside it, and in workspaces, CollabSpaces and folders inside each cabinet, so count cabinet by cabinet and add the totals.

  2. If your firm has NetDocuments Analytics, go to Admin Console, then Analytics, choose a cabinet from the dropdown and open the Cabinet tab. It shows Total Documents, Total Workspaces, Total CollabSpaces and Documents by File Type. NetDocuments says the dashboards default to the previous day's data, and the refresh button on a tile gives up-to-the-minute figures. Add up the cabinets you want to include.

  3. Without Analytics, count with a metadata export. A cabinet administrator first sets the Export folder location on the Cabinet Admin page (Admin, then Cabinets, pick the cabinet, and scroll to the bottom of the Cabinet Administrators section). Then run an Advanced Search scoped to that cabinet, open the dropdown beside the container name, choose Export, pick Metadata only, tick Export official versions only if you want documents rather than every version, and click Export. NetDocuments emails you when it finishes. NetDocuments describes the metadata as a CSV file and a JSON file for exports that include files, so check what a Metadata only run gives you. Count the CSV rows, and spot-check one document you know has several versions to see how versions appear.

  4. Delete the export once you have your count. NetDocuments says export ZIP files count toward your overall storage, and purging an export after you download it frees the space.

  5. To judge how much version history you have, open a few documents and note their version counts. NetDocuments says each document has one official version, which is not always the latest, and allows up to 32,000 versions per document, so a count of documents is not a count of drafts.

  6. For your start date, look for the earliest date in the metadata CSV, and ask your administrator which date field your cabinet profile uses, since profile attributes vary by firm. If the firm moved from another document system, ask whether older documents were migrated, because their dates may reflect the move.

What to put on your intake

Your intake has five boxes for each system. Here is what goes in each one for NetDocuments.

What does it hold?
Your firm's or department's documents with version history, filed email if you use it, and matter workspaces. Describe it by the work, for example: contract drafts and redline history, templates, and closed matter workspaces. Do not list client or matter names.
Data types
Text for the documents themselves, and Structured records if you can also share profile metadata such as document type, matter type and dates. Add Image only if you store scans or drawings you would consider licensing.
How big is it?
Choose Documents and enter the Total Documents figure, or the row count from your metadata export. Put the number of workspaces and a note on typical version counts in the description. Sizing never needs client names, matter names or the documents themselves.
Verified or estimated
Verified when the count comes from the Analytics Cabinet tab or a Metadata only export for every cabinet in scope. Estimated when you counted one cabinet, one practice group or one year, or sampled. Version counts are always estimated.
Records start
The earliest date in your metadata. If documents were migrated from another system, say when native NetDocuments records begin.

Exporting the full history

If a buyer licenses your records, this is how the full history comes out of NetDocuments.

  1. A buyer export happens only after a license is signed and the scope is agreed. For legal records the scope has a second gate: client and matter documents move only with documented client consent, and client details are removed inside the firm before anything leaves it. Your ethics counsel decides whether what's left is de-identified enough that neither the client nor the situation can be identified, but that doesn't replace the consent (ABA Model Rule 1.6; ABA Formal Opinion 512). Firm-owned material that holds no client information, such as blank templates, clause libraries and checklists, is the cleaner place to start. Not legal advice.

  2. Setup. A cabinet administrator sets the Export folder on the Cabinet Admin page with Browse. It must be a top-level folder or a subfolder of one, not a folder inside a workspace, and NetDocuments says the tool cannot be used if top-level folders are not enabled in the cabinet. The administrator can also assign one internal group to run exports, and without a group only cabinet administrators can. The archive size limit is fixed at 1.8 GB unless the repository's Allow large files setting is on. With it on, the limit is set in the Raw documents total max size per archive field, between 1.8 GB and 10 GB, and NetDocuments recommends 4 GB or less for compatibility.

  3. Run the export. The person exporting opens a Search, CollabSpace, Workspace or Folder, selects the container name and chooses Export. The dialog offers Files and metadata or Metadata only, a Document name format, Include ID in folder name, Export official versions only (left unticked, every version is exported), Export filters as folders, and Add password to ZIP archive (8 to 64 characters, and NetDocuments says it cannot be recovered). Click Export.

  4. NetDocuments shows a notification when the export is queued and emails the person who started it when it finishes. If the total is above the archive size limit, the export comes in several ZIP parts. A document larger than the limit is skipped and noted in the log, and NetDocuments says to download those individually from the More menu. Documents carrying a No Download rule in Data Loss Prevention are skipped too, and the email notes why. Large exports can be slow because each item goes through a queue.

  5. Download. Each export gets its own subfolder under the Export folder, named for the container, the versions chosen and the date and time in GMT. It holds the ZIP file or files and an ExportContent text file. Tick the box beside the ZIP, open the More menu and choose Download, and select every part to download them together. With Files and metadata, the ZIP carries the folder structure plus the metadata as a CSV file and a JSON file.

  6. Clean up. Exports count toward storage. After you download, purge the export, or have an administrator set an Export Retention policy under Retention Policies, which scans, lets an administrator review, and then permanently deletes export folders older than the period chosen.

  7. For a handful of documents, select them and use Download. NetDocuments limits a multi-document download to 50 documents, 1 GB per document and 2 GB in total per ZIP, and says to use the ndWeb Export tool for larger sets.

  8. Under the license, client and matter names and numbers, author and user names, party names, signatures and names inside document text are removed inside the firm before anything leaves it. Documents are reviewed before they are included, and some are left out rather than redacted. Removal alone does not settle the ethics question, so the client consent in the first step still applies.

We only ask for an export after you sign a license and agree the scope. Sizing your data for the intake never needs one.

Limits to know

  • An export holds only what the person running it can access. NetDocuments says that when someone starts an export, only the documents they have access to in that container are included, so documents with narrower access lists will be missing unless an account that can open them runs it.
  • The old tool is gone. NetDocuments says the Legacy Mass Export Utility reached end of life in its US region on 16 April 2026 and is not supported in any commercial region, so older runbooks that mention it are out of date. The replacement is Export in the web interface.
  • File names and paths can break an export. NetDocuments allows names up to 1,000 characters, but Windows and macOS limit file and folder names to 255 characters and total paths to between 260 and 32,767 on Windows and 1,024 on macOS. Over-long items may not export correctly. ZIP files also do not keep a document's original created date, though they keep the last modified date.
  • A password-protected ZIP does not open in the default Windows ZIP reader. NetDocuments says to use 7-Zip, WinRAR or WinZip. The default macOS reader handles passwords.
  • Retention policies may already have removed older matters. NetDocuments lets an administrator set policies that delete documents by matter type and matter closing date. Its Document Retention Manager checks at least once every 60 days, emails administrators a list of documents eligible for deletion, and an administrator then has 90 days to confirm. A confirmed purge cannot be undone. Ask whether any policy is active.
  • Deleted is not the same as gone, until it is. NetDocuments keeps deleted documents flagged as Deleted until they are undeleted or purged, and a cabinet administrator decides whether any user may purge or only administrators. A purged document cannot be recovered. Undelete does not refile a document in its old folder: it goes back to the cabinet unfiled unless the person restoring it picks a folder.
  • Version rules matter for a draft history. The newest version is the official one by default but not always, version numbers stay fixed when a version is deleted (version 2 can be missing between 1 and 3), and only a document administrator can delete individual versions.
  • When the Allow metadata to be exported setting is on, NetDocuments adds the document ID, and any Data Loss Prevention labels, to downloaded modern Office files (.docx, .xlsx, .pptx) as custom properties. Those properties are cleared with the other identifiers before delivery under the license, but check the setting before you hand files to anyone.
  • Analytics is not included for everyone. NetDocuments says customers who bought its LEARN solution have it, so use the metadata export if you do not.
  • A matter workspace holds more than your own work: counterparty drafts, documents from the other side, material under a protective order or confidentiality agreement, and licensed research. Those are excluded unless you can show you own them and are free to license them. Information in a public record is not exempt from the confidentiality rule (ABA Formal Opinion 480). Not legal advice.
  • If your firm is an accounting or tax firm, income tax return information in NetDocuments is never licensed. 26 U.S.C. § 7216 makes it a crime for a tax return preparer to knowingly or recklessly disclose it, or use it for anything other than preparing the return, without the taxpayer's consent or a listed exception. Client records from other work move only with that client's specific consent, which the AICPA Code of Professional Conduct requires before a member in public practice discloses confidential client information (1.700.001). Check the rules in each state where your CPAs are licensed. Not legal advice.

This guide isn't legal advice. Check your contracts, and any recording-consent rules that apply, with your own lawyer.

Why buyers value it

NetDocuments holds the drafting record of a firm or legal department: first drafts, partner markups, client comments, redlines and the final, kept as versions of one document. For buyers building drafting, review and contract-analysis tools, the edits that turn a first draft into a final are scarce, and finished documents are easy to find while the trail between them is not.

Most of that trail is client information, even when the final version was filed in public. What can move is narrower: firm-owned templates, clause libraries, checklists and know-how, and drafts and redlines where the client has given documented, informed consent, with client details removed inside the firm. Deep version history on a consistent document type makes even that narrower set more useful to a buyer.

What stays private

Client and matter names and numbers, author and user names, party names, signatures, addresses, and any names or account numbers inside the document text, redline comments and version descriptions are removed before delivery under the license. Dates and amounts may be generalized when they could point to one matter. Documents are reviewed before they are included, and some are left out rather than redacted, because taking identifiers out of free text is harder than clearing a database field.

Removal does not by itself make a document safe to license. The confidentiality rule also covers a disclosure that reveals nothing protected on its face but could reasonably lead someone to discover it, and it allows a hypothetical only when there is no reasonable likelihood the listener could work out who the client is or what the situation was (ABA Model Rule 1.6, Comment 4 (opens in a new tab)). Whether a set of documents meets that bar is a judgment for your ethics counsel, not a script. For client documents, we require a separate, specific client consent, because ABA Formal Opinion 512 (opens in a new tab) says general engagement-letter language is not enough when client information goes into a self-learning AI tool. Not legal advice.

Left out by default: privileged advice, strategy and opinion work product on open matters; protective-order, sealed and opposing-party material; deal files with material nonpublic information; the client list, conflicts records and trust accounting; income tax return information; and employee or personnel records. Criminal, juvenile, family and immigration matters, and anything involving minors, are out by default even when de-identified. Your user list, groups, access lists and logins are not part of the license.

Common questions

Firm-owned material that contains no information about any representation, such as blank forms, clause libraries, checklists and training material, does not raise the same client-consent question. ABA Model Rule 1.6 reaches information relating to the representation of a client, so a template that was copied from a client file, or still carries client details, is different. Check who wrote each item and whether any third-party text is in it, and let your ethics counsel decide. Not legal advice.

No. Count documents, and describe the version history separately. NetDocuments allows up to 32,000 versions of one document, and the version trail is what makes a drafting record valuable, so say in the description how many versions a typical document has.

Clio's help says documents uploaded through the NetDocuments tab appear in both products, so size those files here, and keep Clio's matter, time and billing records for the Clio guide.

Sources

Vendor documentation, checked . Screens and plans change, so if a step looks different in your account, check with NetDocuments.

Related guides for systems that often sit alongside it.

Document management (DMS)

iManage Work

Find how many documents and workspaces iManage Work holds and how a full-history export works, with the client-consent rules that apply to matter files.

Legal practice management and billing

Clio

Find how many matters, time entries and bills Clio holds and how a full-history export works, with the client-consent rules that apply.

Legal practice management and billing

Filevine

Find how many matters (projects), documents and billing entries Filevine holds and how a full-history export works, with consent and medical-record rules.

Email

Outlook (Microsoft 365)

Find how many gigabytes of email Outlook holds across your Microsoft 365 mailboxes, and how eDiscovery export works.