Eric T. Schneiderman, the New York State attorney general, will suspend a policy started by his predecessor, Andrew M. Cuomo, in which emails in his office are automatically deleted after 90 days, his office said on Thursday.

Mr. Cuomo, who is now the governor, currently requires the emails of state employees to be automatically deleted after 90 days — a policy that has been criticized as it expands across state government.

Uncomfortable with that policy, several legislators are seeking to change state law to greatly extend how long emails must be retained. They fear that the automatic deletion of email could undermine transparency and accountability in state government.

Aides to Mr. Schneiderman said the automatic deletion of emails would be turned off while the office formulated a new policy, under which emails would, at minimum, be retained for a substantially longer period of time.