How can I setup a Office365 Retention policy that keep all site but the owner able to remove?

Question

Hello.

Our company has a retention policy that keep all 365 group mailbox and sites.

But I would like to let the SharePoint site owner to remove their site when they doesn't needed.Instead of asking IT to exclude it in the policy and delete.

Is it possible to do so?

Thanks

Answer 1

A retention policy applied to a Microsoft 365 group includes the group mailbox and files stored in the corresponding group-connected SharePoint team site.

Currently, we could only exclude specific Microsoft 365 groups (corresponding group-connected SharePoint team site) from a retention policy. There are no settings to exclude site owners from a retention policy.

In addition, to delete a SharePoint team site with a retention policy, we could go to Microsoft admin center -> Teams&Groups -> Delete the corresponding Microsoft 365 group. But it deletes all data associated with the Microsoft 365 group.

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Answer 2

If you mean giving them the ability to remove the retention policy, you cannot. "Container" level retention policies cannot be managed by end users. Unless you want to grant admin permissions to the site owner, that is.

The Group itself can still be deleted even if a retention policy is assigned, in which case it becomes "inactive" group, but content is preserved for eDiscovery/compliance purposes.