Difference between ELCProcessingDisabled & LitigationHoldEnabled in EXO

Question

Can anyone help me understand , what are the feature differences between ELCProcessingDisabled & LitigationHoldEnabled in Exchange Online?  If it has the same effect on mailbox content retention why should a user purchase E3/E5 just to enable litigation hold.

Set-Mailbox -ElcProcessingDisabled $true

Set-Mailbox -LitigationHoldEnabled $true

Answer 1

Hello DilipSasikumar,

Theoretically the answer is yes. But we don not suggest it for setting it to true will prevent retention process not only on purge folder but also on other folders in Recoverable items folder as well as all folders in entire mailbox. Which means users may not able to utilize the advantages of retention features to manage their mailbox.

For your demands, I recommend you consider litigation hold, so that any items won’t be hard deleted:

Kind Regards,

Anna

Answer 2

Hello Dilip Sasikumar,

“ElcProcessingDisabled” is to let admin determine whether to prevent the Managed Folder Assistant from processing the mailbox. The Managed Folder Assistant (MFA) is an Exchange Mailbox Assistant that applies and processes the message retention settings that are configured in retention policies.

“LitigationHoldEnabled” is to let admin choose whether to place the mailbox on litigation hold.

 

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/powershell/module/exchange/set-mailbox?view=exchange-ps

Retention policy and Litigation hold are 2 features in Exchange online. Both can be used to prevent data loss. They have different scope and mechanism: Learn about retention policies, Create a Litigation Hold. And they’re often combined: Messaging records management in Exchange Server

 

Kind Regards,

Anna

Answer 3

Thankyou soo much Anna for the quick  responses.

Answer 4

Thanks for the reply Anna. So if i set ELCProcessingDisabled to $True, will that prevent emails getting deleted from "Recoverable Items \ Purges" folder ? My intention is to retain all the content in the mailbox even if user hard deletes and move items to Purges.