Cannot delete a SharePoint site

Question

My SP Admin says he cannot delete a site that i created. Why would that be?

Answer 1

Dear user,

Good morning!

Thanks for posting in the Microsoft Community. We're happy to help. We're looking into your situation and will update you soon.

Please appreciate your patience and understanding and thank you for your time and cooperation.

Sincerely.

Microsoft Community Moderato

Answer 2

Dear Hank Church1,

Good day! Thank you for posting to Microsoft Community. We are happy to help you.

From your description It seems you cannot delete a site that you created behavior from your side.

Limited information is present on this query. apologized situation you encountered, we do understand the inconvenience caused and apologize for it. Can your provide bellow information.?

• May I know if you get any error messages when trying to delete a SharePoint site ?
• May I know what the exact method is your admin use to delete the SharePoint site?
• Official method to delete the SharePoint site is documented on this article bellow. If your it admin use incorrect method to delete the site please refer to the article bellow.

Delete a SharePoint site or subsite - Microsoft Support

Your understanding and patience will be highly appreciated.

If there is any misunderstanding, please feel free to correct me.

Have a nice day!

Best regards

Answer 3

Here is the error message (he and I are both Admins for the site, and both get this message about the compliance policy. Not sure where to change that compliance policy.

Answer 4

Dear Hank Church1,

Good day! Thank you for your reply

It seams you get compliance policy is currently blocking this site deletion” Error in SharePoint Online

To delete a site collection, we should exclude it from retention policies. Follow these steps to exclude a site collection from the retention policy in SharePoint Online.

1. Login to Microsoft 365 admin center
2. Open the Compliance Admin Center (If you don’t find it, click on “All Admin Centers” on the left side menu and open the “Compliance” link)
3. In Compliance Admin Center, expand “Policies” from the left-hand navigation menu bar >> Open the “Retention” link.
4. Find the Retention policy which is protecting SharePoint, or there may be a rule protecting everything in Microsoft 365, depending on your settings.
5. Double-click on that retention rule >> Click on the “Edit” button next to “Applies to content in these locations” >> Click on “Exclude Sites” >> Add the site to delete in the exclude list.

1. Wait for some time (10 to 60 min) for the status to turn: On – Success.

Now, try to delete the site! This time it should proceed without any errors.

Your understanding and patience will be highly appreciated.

If there is any misunderstanding, please feel free to correct me.

Have a nice day!