Sharepoint - Versions of this item cannot be deleted because it is on hold or retention policy.

Question

Hi , I have been facing the below issue while deleting the version history of any documents in the tenant.

There is nothing like retention policies, label policies that are configured to this tenant.

Could anyone suggest the solution to try to fix this issue or anything else to check? Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

Hi @unknown_25 ,

The error message “Versions of this item cannot be deleted because it is on hold or retention policy” usually appears when a retention policy or eDiscovery hold is blocking the deletion of the document version .

You mentioned that there are no retention policies or label policies configured for your tenant. However, it’s possible that there might be an invalid retention policy that is blocking the deletion. To verify this, you can run a diagnostic test in the Microsoft 365 admin center. You can follow these steps:

1. Go to the Microsoft 365 admin center. Select Run Tests: Invalid Retention or grace eDiscovery Hold
2. In the Run diagnostics section, either type or copy and paste the URL of the SharePoint or OneDrive site that you want to delete.
3. Select Run Tests.

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