we have deleted older messages due to your org's retention policy

Question

Hi,

I am facing an unusual issue that our Teams chat retention policy dictates that one-to-one chats are retained for a minimum of one year before being deleted.

However, one of our users has reported an anomaly where their Teams chats with two separate users were deleted after just 20 days and all previous chats, accompanied by a message stating "we have deleted older messages due to your org's retention policy."

This situation is quite perplexing since, according to our policy, chats should be retained for at least one year before deletion. Furthermore, it is intriguing that this deletion appears to be isolated to chats with only these two users, while other chats remain unaffected.

How to investigate it.

Answer 1

Hi @Prakash Kumar Singh, 

Thank you for posting on the Microsoft Q&A forum. 

From what you've described, one of your users noticed that their one-on-one chats with two specific individuals were deleted after just 20 days, even though your retention policy is set to keep such messages for at least a year. That’s definitely unexpected, especially since other chats seem unaffected.

In some rare cases, this kind of behavior can happen when multiple retention policies are applied. For instance, if a shorter “delete-only” policy was assigned to those specific users or conversation types, it might override the longer retention setting. It’s also possible that changes like user license updates, group membership changes, or exclusions from the main policy scope could have triggered a different rule. When messages are deleted due to a policy, Teams typically shows a message like “We’ve deleted older messages due to your org’s retention policy,” even if that policy wasn’t meant to apply to those users.

Here are a few steps together to investigate and identify the root cause of this behavior.

1/ Try to review your retention policy settings (admin only) 

• Sign in to the Microsoft Purview compliance portal: compliance.microsoft.com 
• Go to Data lifecycle management > Microsoft 365 > Retention policies 
• Locate the policy applied to Teams chats and confirm:  
  • The policy includes Teams chats (not just channel messages) 
  • The retention duration is set to 1 year 
  • The action is configured to retain or retain and then delete 

2/ Then confirm policy scope 

• Check if the affected users are included in the policy’s scope. 
• If the policy is targeted to specific users or groups, ensure the impacted users are part of those groups. 
• If Adaptive Scopes are used, verify that the conditions are correctly defined and applied. 

3/ After that check for overlapping policies 

• Multiple retention policies can apply to the same content. Microsoft applies the policy with the longest retention period unless a delete-only policy is in place. 
• Review all active policies to ensure there are no conflicting rules that might have caused early deletion. 

4/ Try to use Audit Logs for further insight ,

• In the compliance portal, navigate to Audit > Audit Search 
• Search for activities related to Teams message deletion for the affected users 
• Set the date range to cover the last 30 days and look for any deletion events or policy changes 

5/ You can verify Licensing and User Status 

• Confirm that the affected users have the appropriate Microsoft 365 licenses (e.g., Office 365 E3 or A3), as retention policies require specific licensing 
• Check if there were any recent changes to the users’ accounts, such as group membership updates or license modifications 

6/ If needed, please feel free to contact Microsoft Support for further assistance

As moderators, our main goal is to provide helpful guidance and support with general troubleshooting steps. While we don’t have access to internal systems or administrative tools needed to resolve account-specific or backend issues, we truly hope the information we share points you in the right direction. We're always here to assist as much as we can within our scope.

• If all settings appear correct and the issue persists, I kindly suggest contacting Microsoft’s advanced support team by submitting a request via their official support portal: Get support - Microsoft 365 admin | Microsoft Learn 
• Provide the following details:  
  • Affected user names and email addresses 
  • Approximate dates when the messages were deleted 
  • Screenshots or message headers (if available) 
  • Confirmation of your current retention policy settings 

I'm glad to assist and truly hope the information provided has been useful. Please feel free to reach out anytime if you need further assistance. 

If you find my post helpful, kindly consider marking it as the accepted answer. Doing so can assist others in the community who may have similar questions in finding solutions more quickly. 

Thank you for your kindness and contributions to the forum. 

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