Is there way or policy for SharePoint online to retain the data basis on their files and data versions like there are files which were created long back and has older versions but now I don't need it so by creating the retention or archive policy it will

Question

Is there way or policy for SharePoint online to retain the data basis on their files and data versions like there are files which were created long back and has older versions but now I don't need it so by creating the retention or archive policy it will deleted for particular period lets say last 3 or 5 or more years?

Answer 1

Hi @Vinod Survase ,

Yes, SharePoint Online provides a way to retain data based on their files and data versions. You can create a retention policy to retain or delete files based on your organization’s compliance needs.

When creating a retention policy, it’s important to make sure you understand how it will affect existing documents. A retention policy specifies that a document will be deleted a certain amount of time after it has been created or modified. When you apply a retention policy to a SharePoint site, it will apply to all documents — even those that were created before the policy was applied. So if you set a retention policy of three years from the creation date, and apply it to a site that contains documents that are over three years old, these documents will be deleted.

You also have the option to choose whether to apply the retention policy based on the creation date or the last modified date.

Here are steps to create retain policy:

1. From the Microsoft Purview compliance portal, select Data lifecycle management > Microsoft 365 > Retention Policies.
2. Select New retention policy to start the Create retention policy configuration, and name your new retention policy.

For more detail information,please refer to this article: Create and configure retention policies

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Answer 2

Hi @Vinod Survase ,

I apologize for misunderstanding what you meant. Unfortunately, there is no way in sharepoint to set a deletion or retention policy for a specific period of time for a file's version record. We can only Delete All Versions at once.

Reference: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/delete-a-previous-version-of-an-item-or-file-in-sharepoint-45edfb0d-8b43-4f07-ac6a-ab4ac169d5aa

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