Retention Policy not being applied

Question

Retention Policy not being applied

Rayner, June 65

I have a policy that I set up in Microsoft Purview to delete email messages older than one month. I've applied it to a single Exchange mailbox. After a week, the policy still hasn't deleted the messages that I expected to be deleted. I don't see any errors with the policy. What could be preventing the retention policy from taking effect?

PRADEEPCHEEKATLA 91,581 Reputation points Moderator

2024-07-30T07:06:50.1433333+00:00

@Rayner, June - Thanks for the question and using MS Q&A platform.

It seems like you are having trouble with a retention policy in Microsoft Purview. I'd be happy to help you with that.

Before we proceed, could you please provide me with more information about the policy you have set up? Specifically, could you tell me what type of policy it is, and how you have configured it? This will help me better understand the issue you are facing.
Rayner, June 65 Reputation points

2024-07-31T12:59:00.4+00:00

Hi Jake

Thank you very much that answered my question. Using the get-mailbox command, I discovered that there was a litigation hold on the mailbox that I had added to the policy. I applied the policy to a different mailbox that didn't have a litigation hold, and used to the Start-ManagedFolderAssistant to manually trigger the policy and it applied as expected.

Regards,

June

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PRADEEPCHEEKATLA 91,581 Reputation points Moderator

2024-07-30T07:06:50.1433333+00:00

@Rayner, June - Thanks for the question and using MS Q&A platform.

It seems like you are having trouble with a retention policy in Microsoft Purview. I'd be happy to help you with that.

Before we proceed, could you please provide me with more information about the policy you have set up? Specifically, could you tell me what type of policy it is, and how you have configured it? This will help me better understand the issue you are facing.
Rayner, June 65 Reputation points

2024-07-31T12:59:00.4+00:00

Hi Jake

Thank you very much that answered my question. Using the get-mailbox command, I discovered that there was a litigation hold on the mailbox that I had added to the policy. I applied the policy to a different mailbox that didn't have a litigation hold, and used to the Start-ManagedFolderAssistant to manually trigger the policy and it applied as expected.

Regards,

June

Answer 1

Hi @Rayner, June,

Welcome to the Microsoft Q&A platform!

According to your description,there could be several reasons why your retention policy isn't taking effect as expected. Here are a few things to check:

Retention policies can take up to 14 days to become effective after being applied. Since it’s only been a week, it might just need a bit more time.
If the mailbox is under a Litigation Hold or In-Place Hold, these can override the retention policy. You can check for holds using the following PowerShell command:
```
   Get-Mailbox <username> | FL LitigationHoldEnabled,InPlaceHolds
```
The Managed Folder Assistant processes mailboxes to apply retention policies. You can manually trigger it to run for the specific mailbox using this command:
```
   Start-ManagedFolderAssistant -Identity ******@contoso.com
```
If there are multiple retention policies that apply to the same mailbox, there could be conflicts, and the priorities of these policies could affect their application. Check the policy priority settings to ensure your desired policy is set up correctly.

Please feel free to contact me if you have any queries.

Best,

Jake Zhang

Aaron Seet 726 Reputation points

2025-01-03T08:59:34.9566667+00:00

Documentation states it takes up to seven days for retention policies to be applied. What's your source to prove the documentation is lying?

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