Retension policy at site level Vs at Content Type level

Question

Inside the "Data Life Cycle management" we can define a retention policy that get applied to the whole site collection, as follow:-

Also at the content type level inside our lists and libraries we can apply a retention policy, as follow:-

so if the site has a retention policy applied from the "Data Life Cycle management" and we also have a retention policy applied to the content type.. which one will get applied to the underlying documents and lists and why? the one at the site level or the one at the content type level?

Thanks

Answer 1

Hi @john john Pter,

In SharePoint, when both a site collection-level retention policy and a content type-level retention policy are applied, the content type-level policy takes precedence. Here's why:

• SharePoint applies retention policies using a "most specific wins" logic. Policies defined at a more granular level (e.g., content types, lists, libraries) override broader policies (e.g., site or site collection level).
• Content type policies are considered more specific because they target a particular type of content (e.g., contracts, invoices), whereas site-level policies apply to all content in the site collection.

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