Default Retention Policy in Exchange Online

Important

Please refer to the Microsoft 365 security center and the Microsoft Purview compliance portal for Exchange security and compliance features. They are no longer available in the new Exchange admin center.

Note

To proactively retain or delete mailbox content for information governance in Microsoft 365, we recommend that you use retention policies and retention labels from the Microsoft Purview compliance portal, instead of messaging records management that's described on this page. However, you should continue using messaging records management to move messages to archive mailboxes.

If you currently use messaging records management, this older feature will continue to work side-by-side with retention policies and retention labels. However, we recommend that going forward, you use retention policies and retention labels instead. They provide you with a single mechanism to centrally manage both retention and deletion of content across Microsoft 365.

Exchange creates the retention policy Default MRM Policy in your Exchange Online and on-premises Exchange organization. The policy is automatically applied to new users in Exchange Online. In on-premises organizations, the policy is applied when you create an archive for the mailbox. You can change the retention policy applied to a user at any time.

You can modify tags included in the Default MRM Policy, for example by changing the retention age or retention actions, disable a tag, or modify the policy by adding or removing tags from it. The updated policy is applied to mailboxes the next time they're processed by the Managed Folder Assistant

[NOTE] The Default MRM Policy doesn't include a default tag to automatically delete content from the Deleted items folder as per Extended email retention for deleted items in Office 365. If you want to apply the 30-day retention or set a custom retention period, that can be done by adding an appropriate retention tag for deleted items folder to the Default MRM Policy.

Retention tags linked to the Default MRM Policy

The following table lists the default retention tags linked to the Default MRM Policy.

Name Type Retention age (days) Retention action
Default 2 years move to archive Default Policy Tag (DPT) 730 Move to Archive
Recoverable Items 14 days move to archive Recoverable Items folder 14 Move to Archive
Personal 1 year move to archive Personal tag 365 Move to Archive
Personal 5 year move to archive Personal tag 1,825 Move to Archive
Personal never move to archive Personal tag Not applicable Move to Archive
1 Week Delete Personal tag 7 Delete and Allow Recovery
1 Month Delete Personal tag 30 Delete and Allow Recovery
6 Month Delete Personal tag 180 Delete and Allow Recovery
1 Year Delete Personal tag 365 Delete and Allow Recovery
5 Year Delete Personal tag 1,825 Delete and Allow Recovery
Never Delete Personal tag Not applicable Delete and Allow Recovery

What you can do with the Default MRM Policy

You can... In Exchange Online... In Exchange Server...
Apply the Default MRM Policy automatically to new users Yes, applied by default. No action is required. Yes, applied by default if you also create an archive for the new user.

If you create an archive for the user later, the policy is applied automatically only if the user doesn't have an existing Retention Policy.

Modify the retention age or retention action of a retention tag linked to the policy Yes Yes
Disable a retention tag linked to the policy Yes Yes
Add a retention tag to the policy Yes Yes
Remove a retention tag from the policy Yes Yes
Set another policy as the default retention policy to be applied automatically to new users No No

More information