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
January 27th, 2026
Improved
We've made some behind-the-scenes improvements to make your exports more reliable and transparent.
What's improved?
More reliable exports
Large documents with many pages now export smoothly without issues. No more failed exports on bigger files!
You're always in the know
If something goes wrong with a specific document during export, we'll tell you exactly what happened. You'll find a summary report in your download that explains any issues.
Your data stays protected
We've strengthened our security measures to ensure your redacted information always stays redacted. If we can't securely process a document, we'll let you know rather than risk exposing
sensitive content.
Fully secure redactions
Some PDF readers like Chrome and Adobe Acrobat can automatically extract text using OCR (optical character recognition). Don't worry - our sanitisation process completely destroys the
underlying text layer, so even advanced OCR tools can't see what's behind the black redaction boxes. Your sensitive information is fully protected.
💬 Having issues with an export? Click the chat icon to reach our support team - we're happy to help!
January 18th, 2026
New
Get comprehensive insights into your redaction activity with our new Redaction Stats tool.
Dashboard Statistics
Total redactions, items processed, and coverage percentage at a glance
Estimated time saved based on your redaction activity
Bulk vs. individual redaction breakdown
Top 5 most redacted items and terms
Activity timeline showing first and last redaction dates
PDF Report Generation
Generate professional report to send to your manager or director. Use also as evidence.
How to Access
Open any project
Click the mode dropdown (Triage/Redact/Export)
Select Redaction Stats from the Tools section
Review statistics and click Download PDF Report
Here is what the dashboard looks like!
January 17th, 2026
Improved
New Features:
Collapsible PDF viewer with compact header - click the collapse button to maximize your email list space
"Select all pages" option in Triage mode for bulk email selection across all pages
Performance:
Smoother drag resizing for PDF viewer and sidebar
Faster email list updates when PDF status changes
UX Improvements:
PDF viewer now starts collapsed by default
Default page size increased to 50 emails
November 20th, 2025
New
🎉 PDF Support Is Here
We're excited to announce that RedactBox now supports PDF document redaction. Protect sensitive information in your PDFs with the same powerful tools you already use for emails.
What You Can Do
✓ Upload PDFs
Upload your PDF files into RedactBox, just like you do with email files.
✓ The same redaction interface
Use the same intuitive selection and redaction tools you already know from email redaction.
✓ Secure export options
Export your redacted PDFs with permanent, irreversible redactions applied securely.
✓ Perfect for legal documents
Redact contracts, reports, legal documents, email attachments, and any sensitive PDF documentation.
Ready to get started?
Need help getting started? View our upload guide
Have feedback or questions? Let us know in the comments below! 👇