Exclude outlook notes from a retention policy

Question

Hey Team,

We have a retention policy to delete email after 2 years but we would like to exclude Outlook notes. Is there a way to do that?

Thank you for your help

Answer 1

Hi @Jennifer ，

If you are using the Retention policy which is managed via the Microsoft Purview compliance portal > Solutions > Data lifecycle management > Exchange (legacy) , agree with Vasil that you can create a Retention Policy Tag (RPT) to Notes folder and then add it into the current retention policy:

If you are using the retention compliance rule, you can use the Set-RetentionComplianceRule cmdlet which is available in Office 365 Security & Compliance Center PowerShell with the parameter -ExcludedItemClasses. See links below for reference:

• Do Retention Policy affect notes and
• Item classes for exclusion in Retention Compliance Rule

(Please Note: Since the web site is not hosted by Microsoft, the link may change without notice. Microsoft does not guarantee the accuracy of this information.)

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Answer 2

Did you create an Exchange Online retention policy, or a Purview one? For the latter, there is no way to exclude specific folders.

If you created an Exchange Online policy, you can include a folder-specific tag for the Notes folder in it, thus preventing the default tag from affecting items in the Notes folder. Refer to this article for more info: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/exchange/security-and-compliance/messaging-records-management/default-folders

Answer 3

By using PowerShell, you can exclude specific types of Exchange items from a retention policy. For example, you can exclude voicemail messages, IM conversations, and other Skype for Business Online content in mailboxes. You can also exclude calendar, note, and task items. This capability is available only by using PowerShell; it's not available in the UI when you create a retention policy.

To do this, use the ExcludedItemClasses parameter of the New-RetentionComplianceRule and Set-RetentionComplianceRule cmdlets. For more information about PowerShell, see the below section Find the PowerShell cmdlets for retention policies.

Answer 4

Thank you all for your help!