An information processing apparatus includes circuitry to, store, in a memory, received fax data as a stored document in a distribution destination folder corresponding to the fax data, in response to detection of a delete operation performed on the stored document, determine a state of the stored document to generate a first determination result, when the first determination result indicates that the stored document is in a read state, determine whether a period from a time at which the stored document was read to a time at which the delete operation was performed is within a preset period to generate a second determination result, and when the first determination result indicates that the stored document is in an unread state, or when the second determination result indicates that the period is within the preset period, copy the stored document to a specific folder and delete the stored document.