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Outlook 2016 Folder Policy button missing

Daniel Kaliel 1,261 Reputation points
2021-02-04T23:12:20.93+00:00

I migrated a test user to our Exchange Online tenant. I have created retention policy and tags in Exchange Online admin and assigned them to everyone for their online archives.

But for the test user, in the Outlook desktop client, when they highlight a folder and click on Folder the Policy button is simply not there. Nor can we find it anywhere. If they log into the Outlook Web App, policies are available there for the user to assign to a folder.

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  1. Daniel Kaliel 1,261 Reputation points
    2021-02-05T17:13:36.46+00:00

    Yea, we have the right license.

    To solve this we had to log into the web interface (OWA) for the user and checkmark the personal retention polices that were assigned to the user through Exchange admin. Then restart the Outlook client. After that, the policy button appeared in the Ribbon under Folder and the user could assign the policy they want.

    That seems like a step that shouldn't be necessary but it worked.

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  1. SUNOJ KUMAR YELURU 14,016 Reputation points MVP
    2021-02-05T00:59:34.283+00:00

    HI @Daniel Kaliel
    For Outlook 2013 and Office 365, please go to FILE > Options > Advanced > AutoArchive Settings to configure the retention or archiving policy for the folders. Or you can right click on a specific folder and then click Properties > AutoArchive to define the policy for this folder.
    Assign Policy option missing for Outlook users.

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  2. Yuki Sun-MSFT 40,931 Reputation points
    2021-02-05T07:32:13.303+00:00

    Hi @Daniel Kaliel ,

    Outlook 2016 Folder Policy button missing

    According to this article, the Retention Policy feature requires specific Outlook license. So you may go to File > Office Account > Product information, check if the Outlook version is in the list below:

    • Outlook 2016 stand-alone (Retail)
    • Outlook 2016 stand-alone (Volume Licenses)
    • Outlook 2016 included with Microsoft Office Professional 2016 (Volume Licenses)

    With that confirmed, I'd like to suggest trying to recreate an Outlook profile for the test user in case the change has some delay to reflect in the current profile.

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