Restricted review is the second, private queue next to the Inbox. It holds email that carries Internal or Staff content, or that SAQ could not safely place at the audience it belongs to. Nothing in it is shown to people who could not read that audience, and the only action is to merge it into a ticket. The page explains itself: "This message matched internal or staff mail, or its sender could not be verified for that audience. It stays at that audience until someone who may comment there merges it into a ticket."
Why a message is held
SAQ sends Internal and Staff notifications by email too, so a reply to one of them carries private content. A message goes to review instead of the Inbox when:
- it replies to, or quotes the reference of, an Internal or Staff notification thread, and the sender may not comment at that audience on the ticket (for example an address that is not a workspace user, or an elevated client user replying to a staff thread);
- its sender could not be verified, and the thread it references is not shared;
- it references more than one ticket, so SAQ cannot tell where it belongs;
- it quotes a SAQ reference that no longer resolves, for example after a redaction. Such content is treated as staff material with no known ticket.
A message from a sender who may comment at that audience is appended to the ticket directly and never appears here. Plain shared mail never comes here either; it goes to the Inbox.
Who sees it
| Situation | Who can open the message |
|---|---|
| Held at Internal with a known ticket | Workspace users who may comment at Internal on that ticket: Owners, Admins, and members of its project |
| Held at Staff with a known ticket | Same, at Staff: Owners, Admins, and members of its project |
| Held with no identifiable ticket | Owners and Admins only |
| Any | Never a client user, even when elevated |
The Review entry appears in the sidebar only when there is at least one item you are allowed to read. In the Inbox, everyone else sees only a stub: "{n} items in restricted review. Open Review to see what you are allowed to read." The stub carries no subject, sender, or ticket.
Merge a held message
- Open Review in the sidebar.
jandkmove through the list,Enteropens a message. - The detail pane shows the message and "This message remains visible to: {audience}." The Target ticket ID is prefilled with the ticket the message references, when there is one.
- Choose the Audience of the merged comment. It starts at the held audience and can only go up (Internal → Staff), never down to Shared.
- Optionally Add an explicit viewer or tick Put the sender on the ticket. The sender option is unavailable when the sender is unverified.
- Select Merge into existing ticket….
The message becomes a comment on the target at the chosen audience, attributed to the verified sender or to you, its attachments travel with it, and the ticket's timeline records the merge. You must be able to comment on the target at that audience; the Inbox triage right alone does not qualify.
Notifications
When a message is held for a known ticket, SAQ mails "A message about {ticket} · {title} is waiting in restricted review" to the workspace users who could read that audience on the ticket and whose preference is Everything I can see. People on Mentions and assignments only or None are not told. A message with no identifiable ticket notifies no one; Owners and Admins find it in Review.
Rules
- Held messages never create tickets. Review has no Route; if the content should become a new ticket, merge it into one you create first.
- The held audience is a floor. Merging cannot expose Internal or Staff content to a client user by lowering the audience.
- A held reply to a closed ticket does not reopen it; the merge appends a comment without changing the state.
- Loop-guarded and quarantined shared messages stay in the Inbox, not in Review.
Common problems
Review is not in my sidebar. There is nothing you are allowed to read there. Members see only items on their own projects; items with no identifiable ticket are for Owners and Admins.
"You may not comment on that ticket at this audience, so it cannot be merged there." You chose a target where you are not a project member or a viewer, or an audience above what you may write there. Ask a member of the target's project.
A customer replied to an internal comment and it was held. That is intended: the reply quotes internal content. Merge it at Internal (or Staff) so the reply stays private, and answer the customer in a Shared comment.