admins at the microsoft level can create an archive and delete policy that automatically moves items to a user’s archive mailbox and automatically deletes items from the mailbox.
To do this, create a messaging record management (mrm) retention policy that you then assign to mailboxes. this policy moves items to a user’s archive mailbox after a specified period of time and also deletes items from the mailbox after they reach a certain age limit.
The actual rules that determine which items are moved or deleted and when they happen are called retention tags. retention tags are tied to an mrm retention policy, which is in turn assigned to a user’s mailbox. a retention tag applies retention settings to individual messages and folders in a user’s mailbox. defines how long a message remains in the mailbox and what action is taken when the message reaches the specified retention age. when a message reaches its retention age, it is moved to the user’s archive mailbox or deleted.
The steps in this article set up an archive and retention policy for a fictitious organization called Alpine House. configuring this policy includes the following tasks:
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Enable an archive mailbox for each user in the organization. this procedure gives users more storage in the mailbox and is necessary so that a retention policy can automatically move items to the archive mailbox. a user can also manually move items to their archive mailbox for archive storage.
Create three custom retention tags to perform the following actions:
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automatically move items that are 3 years old to the user’s archive mailbox. moving items to the archive mailbox frees up space in a user’s primary mailbox.
Automatically delete items that are 5 years old from the deleted items folder. this also frees up space in the user’s primary mailbox. the user will have the opportunity to recover these items if necessary. see the footnote in the more information section for more details.
Automatically (and permanently) delete items that are 7 years old from both the primary and archive mailboxes. Due to compliance regulations, some organizations are required to retain email for a specific period of time. When this time period expires, an organization might want to permanently delete these items from users’ mailboxes.
create a new retention policy and add the new custom retention tags to it. in addition, you will also add built-in retention tags to the new retention policy. this includes personal labels that users can assign to items in their mailbox. will also add a retention tag that moves items from the Recoverable Items folder in the user’s primary mailbox to the Recoverable Items folder in their archive mailbox. this action helps free up space in a user’s Recoverable Items folder when their mailbox is on hold.
You can follow some or all of the steps in this article to set up an archive and delete policy for your own organization’s mailboxes. We recommend that you test this process on a few mailboxes before rolling it out to all mailboxes in your organization.
before configuring an archive and deletion policy
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You must be a global administrator in your organization to perform the steps in this article.
When you create a new user account and assign the user an online sharing license, a mailbox is automatically created for the user. When the mailbox is created, it is automatically assigned a default retention policy, called the default mrm policy. In this article, you’ll create a new mrm retention policy and then assign it to user mailboxes, overriding the default mrm policy. a mailbox can only have one mrm retention policy assigned to it at a time.
For more information on online exchange mrm retention tags and retention policies, see retention tags and retention policies.
Step 1: Enable archive mailboxes for users
The first step is to ensure that each user in your organization has an archive mailbox. A user’s archive mailbox must be enabled for a retention tag with a “move to archive” retention action to be able to move the item after the retention age expires.
For instructions on how to enable archive mailboxes, see Enabling Archive Mailboxes in the Microsoft Purview Compliance Portal.
Step 2: Create new retention tags for archive and deletion policies
In this step, you’ll create the three custom retention tags described above.
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alpine house 3 year move to archive (custom archive policy)
alpine house 7 years delete permanently (custom deletion policy)
alpine house deleted items 5 years delete and allow recovery (custom label for deleted items folder)
To create new retention labels, you will use the Microsoft Mandate Compliance Portal.
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Go to the purview microsoft compliance portal and sign in with your credentials.
In the compliance portal, go to solutions > data lifecycle management > exchange (legacy) > retention labels
a list of retention tags for your organization is displayed.
create custom archive default policy tag
first, you’ll create a custom archive default policy tag (dpt) that will move items to the archive mailbox after 3 years.
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on the retention tags page, select + new tag and then define how the tag will be applied. strong>, automatically select the entire mailbox (default).
On the define retention settings page, complete the following fields:
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when items reach the next age (in days) enter the length of the retention period. for this scenario, items will be moved to the archive mailbox after 1095 days (3 years).
for the retention action select move item to archive to move items to the archive mailbox when the retention period expires.
On the name your tag page, type a name for the new retention tag and an optional description that explains the purpose of the custom retention tag.
for our example scenario, we’ll call this tag “alpine house 3 years move to file”.
select next and then review and submit to create custom filing department.
the new dpt file is displayed in the list of retention tags.
create a custom default delete policy tag
You will then create another custom dpt, but this one will have a delete policy that will permanently delete items after 7 years.
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Go back to the retention tags page, select + new tag, and then under define how retention will be applied. label page, automatically select the entire mailbox (default) again.
On the define retention settings page, complete the following fields:
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when items reach the next age (in days) enter the length of the retention period. for this scenario, items will be deleted after 2555 days (7 years).
For the retention action, select permanently delete to delete mailbox items when the retention period expires.
On the name your tag page, type a name for the new retention tag and an optional description that explains the purpose of the custom retention tag.
for our example scenario, we’ll call this tag “alpine house 7 years delete permanently”.
select next and then review and submit to create the custom disposal department.
the new delete dpt is displayed in the list of retention tags.
create a custom retention policy tag for the deleted items folder
The last retention tag to be created is a custom retention policy tag (rpt) for the deleted items folder. this tag will delete items in the deleted items folder after 5 years and provides a recovery period in which users can use the deleted item recovery tool to recover an item.
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Go back to the retention tags page, select + new tag, and then under define how retention will be applied. label page, automatically select the entire mailbox (default) again.
On the define retention settings page, complete the following fields:
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when items reach the next age (in days) enter the length of the retention period. for this scenario, items will be deleted after 1825 days (5 years).
for the retention action, select delete and allow recovery to delete items when the retention period expires, but allow users to recover a deleted item within the retention period. deleted item retention period (which defaults to 14 days).
On the name your tag page, type a name for the new retention tag and an optional description that explains the purpose of the custom retention tag.
for our example scenario, we’ll call this tag “alpine house deleted items 5 years delete and allow recovery”.
select next and then review and submit to create the custom disposal department.
the new rpt is displayed in the list of retention tags.
Step 3: Create a new retention policy
After creating the custom retention tags, the next step is to create a new retention policy and add the retention tags. you’ll add the three custom retention tags you created in step 2 and the built-in tags mentioned in the first section. In step 4, you’ll assign this new retention policy to user mailboxes.
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on the microsoft compliance portal, go to data lifecycle management > exchange (legacy) > retention policies.
On the retention policies page, select new policy.
In the name box, type a name for the new retention policy; for example, alpine house archive and delete policy.
select + add tag.
A list of retention labels in your organization is displayed, including the custom labels you created in step 2.
add the 9 retention tags described in more detail in the more information section:
- alpine house 3 years move to archive – The custom archive default policy tag created in step 2 of these instructions
- alpine house 7 years delete permanently : the custom delete tag created in step 2 of these instructions
- alpine house deleted items 5 years delete and allow recovery: the tag custom for the deleted items folder created in step 2 of these instructions
- recoverable items 14 days move to archive
- spam
- delete 1 month
- delete 1 year
- never delete
- 1 year personal transfer to archive
To add these retention tags, select them and then select add.
Back on the configure your policy page, select next to review and submit the new policy.
The new retention policy is displayed in the list. select it to display retention tags linked to it in the details pane.
Step 4 – Assign the new retention policy to user mailboxes
When a new mailbox is created, it is assigned a retention policy called the default mrm policy. In this step, you’ll override this retention policy by assigning the new retention policy you created in step 3 to the mailboxes of users in your organization.
Replacement is required because a mailbox can only have one mrm retention policy assigned to it at a time. This step assumes that you’ll assign the new policy to all mailboxes in your organization.
To follow these steps, make sure you’re using the new exchange admin center, rather than the classic version.
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log in to the new exchange admin center (eac) and go to recipients > mailboxes.
a list of all mailboxes for users in your organization is displayed.
select all mailboxes by checking the box for display name.
select the mailbox policies option.
In the Mailbox Policies flyout pane, under Retention Policy, select the retention policy you created in step 3; for example, Alpine House Archive and Preservation Policy.
select save to save the new retention policy assignment.
To verify that the new retention policy was assigned to the mailboxes:
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select a mailbox on the mailboxes page.
On the properties page for the selected user’s mailbox, select mailbox.
The name of the new policy assigned to the mailbox is displayed for the retention policy.
(Optional) Step 5 – Run the Managed Folder Helper to apply the new settings
After applying the new retention policy to the mailboxes in step 4, it may take up to 7 days for the new retention settings to be applied to the mailboxes. This is because mailboxes are processed by a process called Managed Folder Assistant at least once every 7 days. Instead of waiting for the managed folder assistant to run, you can force this to happen by running the start-managedfolderassistant cmdlet in exchange online powershell.
what happens when you run the managed folder assistant? applies the settings in the retention policy by inspecting the items in the mailbox and determining if they are subject to retention. then seals items subject to retention with the appropriate retention label, and then performs the specified retention action on items that are past their retention age.
These are the steps to connect to exchange powershell online and then run the Managed Folder Assistant on each mailbox in your organization.
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connect to trade powershell online.
Run the following two commands to start the Managed Folder Assistant for all user mailboxes in your organization.
that’s it! has configured an archive and delete policy for the alpine home organization.
learn more about managed folder assistant
As noted above, the Managed Folder Assistant processes mailboxes at least once every 7 days. therefore, the Managed Folder Assistant may process a mailbox more frequently. Also, administrators can’t predict the next time the Managed Folder Assistant will process a mailbox, which is one reason you might want to run it manually.
However, if you want to temporarily prevent Managed Folder Assistant from applying new retention settings to a mailbox, you can run the set-mailbox -elcprocessingdisabled $true command to temporarily disable Managed Folder Assistant from processing a mailbox.
To re-enable Managed Folder Assistant for a mailbox, run the command set-mailbox -elcprocessingdisabled $false.
Finally, if a mailbox user has a disabled account, items are not moved to that mailbox’s archive mailbox.
(Optional) Step 6 – Make the new retention policy the default for your organization
In step 4, you must assign the new retention policy to the existing mailboxes. but you can configure exchange online so that the new retention policy is assigned to new mailboxes that are created in the future.
To do this, use exchange online powershell to update your organization’s default mailbox plan. a mailbox plan is a template that automatically configures the properties of new mailboxes. In this optional step, you can replace the current retention policy assigned to the mailbox plan (by default, the default mrm policy) with the mrm retention policy that you created in step 3. After upgrading the mailbox plan, the new mrm retention policy will be assigned to new mailboxes.
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connect to trade powershell online.
Run the following command to display information about your organization’s mailbox plans.
Note the mailbox plan that is configured as default.
Run the following command to assign the new mrm retention policy you created in step 3 (for example, alpine house archive and retention policy) to the default mailbox plan. this example assumes the default mailbox plan name is exchangeonlineenterprise.
You can rerun the command in step 2 to verify that the mrm retention policy assigned to the default mailbox plan has been changed.
more information
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The retention age of mailbox items is calculated from the delivery date. or from the date of creation for items such as draft messages that are not sent but are created by the user. When the Managed Folder Assistant processes items in a mailbox, it marks a start date and an expiration date for all items that have retention tags with the action delete and allow recovery or permanently delete retention. items that have an archive tag are marked with a moved date.
The following table provides more information about each retention tag for the custom mrm retention policy in this article.
* Users can use the Deleted Item Recovery Tool in Outlook and Outlook on the Web (formerly known as Outlook Web App) to recover a deleted item within the deleted item retention period, which by default is 14 days to exchange online. An administrator can use Exchange Online PowerShell to increase the deleted item retention period to a maximum of 30 days. For more information, see: Recover Deleted Items in Outlook for Windows and Change the Deleted Item Retention Period for a Mailbox on Exchange Online.
Using the Recoverable Items 14 Days to Archive retention tag helps free up storage space in the Recoverable Items folder in the user’s primary mailbox. this is useful when a user’s mailbox is on hold or has a retention policy applied that holds items. both settings prevent emails from being permanently deleted from the user’s mailbox. without moving items to the archive mailbox, the storage quota for the Recoverable Items folder in the primary mailbox may be reached. For more information on this scenario, see Increase the recoverable item quota for mailboxes on hold.
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