Microsoft Purview Exchange Default MRM Retention Policy Overlapping MRM Retention Tags

Question

I am in Microsoft Purview, and trying to understand how the MRM Retention Tags and Policies are used.

Let start out with the Junk Mail tag. In the "Default MRM Policy" under "MRM Retention Policies", it says:

Junk Email

30 days

Delete

When i go into the user's Outlook Web App, and right click on the Junk Mail folder, then right click on it, then go to Assign Policy, under "Retention Labels", it says "Use Parent Folder Policy". If I go to the Parent Folder labeled "Folders', it also says "Use parent folder policy". Those two settings seem out of alignment with each other. One is 30 days, and the other is "Parent Folder Policy".

The other problem is if I go to the Inbox, and select Assign Policy, it gives me a range of "Delete options", but none of the Archive options shown in the "Default MRM Policy".

Here are the retention tags for the Default MRM Policy".

Retention tags

1 Month Delete

1 Week Delete

1 Year Delete

5 Year Delete

6 Month Delete

Default 2 year move to archive

Junk Email

Never Delete

Personal 1 year move to archive

Personal 5 year move to archive

Personal never move to archive

Recoverable Items 14 days move to archive

Any help understanding this would be appreciated!

Answer 1

Hi @Michael Adams ,

Thanks for posting our Q&A forum.

Firstly, it is important to note that the Retention Labels and Archive Policies in Outlook on the web can be assigned to both messages and folders in your mailbox. The Retention Labels control how long your messages will be saved, while the Archive Policies control how long messages are left in an email folder before they’re moved to an archive.

Regarding your first issue, this is because the Junk Mail folder is a subfolder of the Inbox folder, which is a subfolder of the Folders folder. Therefore, the Junk Mail folder inherits its retention policy from its parent folder, which is the Inbox folder.

Regarding your second issue, this could be because your IT administrator has not turned on this option for your organization. You can check with them to see if this feature is available for you.

Reference: Retention tags and retention policies in Exchange Online

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