This browser is no longer supported.
Upgrade to Microsoft Edge to take advantage of the latest features, security updates, and technical support.
![](data:image/svg+xml, %3Csvg xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2000/svg' height='64' class='font-weight-bold' style='font: 600 30.11764705882353px "SegoeUI", Arial' width='64'%3E%3Ccircle fill='hsl(51.2, 46%, 14%)' cx='32' cy='32' r='32' /%3E%3Ctext x='50%25' y='55%25' dominant-baseline='middle' text-anchor='middle' fill='%23FFF' %3EPD%3C/text%3E%3C/svg%3E)
I am having issues with an Exchange Online retention policy not taking affect properly. I created a Purview tag and rule to permanently delete any Deleted Items email older than 31 days old. I assigned that rule to one specific user, myself, to test, but the policy has not taken any action. I also followed along with the troubleshooting steps in the below link to no avail. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
Phil
The retention "age" for items in the Deleted items folder is calculated differently, as detailed here: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/exchange/security-and-compliance/messaging-records-management/retention-age#determining-the-age-of-different-types-of-items
Other than that, there are some caveats for the tag itself, as at one point Microsoft decided items within the Deleted items folder should not be automatically removed. Long story short, they ignore the "default" Delete items tag, so you either have to create a new one, or create a new MRM policy (or rename the default one). Details are here: https://www.michev.info/blog/post/5868/make-sure-deleted-items-are-automatically-removed-from-microsoft-365-mailboxes
Hi Vasil,
Thank you so much for the quick reply and additional information to review. I did create a separate MRM policy and new tags related to deleting Sent Items and Deleted Items older than a specified period of time. I assigned this new MRM policy to my mailbox, which is fairly large, ran the "Start-ManagedFolderAssistant -Idenitty <my email address>" powershell command, but have not seen any affect take place with my emails stored in those respective folders. Do you have any tips/tricks or additional steps I can take to continue troubleshooting? Again, I appreciate your time and expertise!
Thanks,
Phil
Those are folder-specific tags, not personal ones, right? As for Start-ManagedFolderAssistant, running it only "signals" the backend to process the mailbox, it still can take up to 7 days for changes to be reflected, especially on larger mailboxes.
If more than a week has passed, check the ELCLastSuccessTimestamp and related properties, as detailed here: https://practical365.com/understanding-the-exchange-mailbox-folder-assistant/
Yes, those are the default folder-specific tags that I created. Thank you again for the quick reply. I'll let this ride for a few days and see if any changes take place. Being patient isn't an inherent virtue for most IT professionals :)
Quick update... It now appears that the "Sent Items" retention policy is working, but still no change in the "Deleted Items" folder.
Day 2 update...
The Deleted Items MRM policy/tag is still not taking affect.
![](data:image/svg+xml, %3Csvg xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2000/svg' height='64' class='font-weight-bold' style='font: 600 30.11764705882353px "SegoeUI", Arial' width='64'%3E%3Ccircle fill='hsl(70.4, 18%, 16%)' cx='32' cy='32' r='32' /%3E%3Ctext x='50%25' y='55%25' dominant-baseline='middle' text-anchor='middle' fill='%23FFF' %3ENM%3C/text%3E%3C/svg%3E)
Thanks for your update. Like Vasil Michev said, it could take up to a week for this to take effect, in the meantime, if you have any help from my side, please free feel to let me know.
If you need further help, please feel free to reply to this post directly so we will be notified to follow it up.
Just checking in to see if above information was helpful. Please let us know if you would like further assistance.