Retention labels not deleting folder

Question

Hi, Created a retension policy to delete files after x amount of days. Applied it to a folder in SharePoint Online.
Files within the folder are deleted, but the folder remains in place with the retension label.

Can the folder be removed also?

Answer 1

Hi @raj chahal ,

As per my test, create retention policy has only two choices, one is Delete item automatically, another is Delete noting. You could only create policy to delete items instead of delete folder. This is by design.

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Answer 2

If its by design its not practical.. perhaps something is being missed?

Answer 3

Hi @raj chahal ,

If you want to delete a folder without files, I suggest you could use PNP-PowerShell to delete it. It can automatically identify an empty folder and delete it.

Please try to use this code:

#Parameters  
$SiteURL = "https://crescent.sharepoint.com/sites/Marketing"  
$DocumentLibraryName = "Documents"  
    
#Connect to the Site  
Connect-PnPOnline -URL $SiteURL -Credentials (Get-Credential)  
   
#Get the web & folder  
$Web = Get-PnPWeb  
$List = Get-PnPList -Identity $DocumentLibraryName -Includes RootFolder  
   
Function Delete-PnPEmptyFolder([Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.Folder]$Folder)  
{  
    $FolderSiteRelativeURL = $Folder.ServerRelativeUrl.Substring($Web.ServerRelativeUrl.Length+1)  
    #Process all Sub-Folders  
    $SubFolders = Get-PnPFolderItem -FolderSiteRelativeUrl $FolderSiteRelativeURL -ItemType Folder  
    Foreach($SubFolder in $SubFolders)  
    {  
        #Exclude "Forms" and Hidden folders  
        If(($SubFolder.Name -ne "Forms") -and (-Not($SubFolder.Name.StartsWith("_"))))  
        {  
            #Call the function recursively  
            Delete-PnPEmptyFolder -Folder $SubFolder  
        }  
    }  
    #Get all files & Reload Sub-folders from the given Folder  
    $Files = Get-PnPFolderItem -FolderSiteRelativeUrl $FolderSiteRelativeURL -ItemType File  
    $SubFolders = Get-PnPFolderItem -FolderSiteRelativeUrl $FolderSiteRelativeURL -ItemType Folder  
   
    If ($Files.Count -eq 0 -and $SubFolders.Count -eq 0)  
    {  
        #Delete the folder  
        $ParentFolder = Get-PnPProperty -ClientObject $Folder -Property ParentFolder  
        $ParentFolderURL = $ParentFolder.ServerRelativeUrl.Substring($Web.ServerRelativeUrl.Length+1)      
        Remove-PnPFolder -Name $Folder.Name -Folder $ParentFolderURL -Force -Recycle  
        Write-Host -f Green ("Deleted Folder: '{0}' at '{1}'" -f $Folder.Name, $Folder.ServerRelativeURL)  
    }  
   
}  
#Call the Function to Delete empty Folders  
Delete-PnPEmptyFolder $List.RootFolder  

Output:

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Answer 4

@Jinwei Li-MSFT

It can automatically identify an empty folder and delete it

Is the code an event receiver, as I thought event receivers are not possible with SharePoint Online or must the code be run manually on a schedule?
I expect, users to create folders as and when required, add retension label, then files and folders get deleted when retension period reached. If I have to manually run a script to remove empty folders becuse the retension does not, it's not a good solution.
In the solution you provided, I may as well not add labels and delete folderes which contain the files. Correct me if I am wrong!