Forum Discussion
Deleted labels showing pending deletion status
Hi All,
We encountered an issue after deleting a sensitivity label through the Microsoft Purview portal. When we tried to recreate the same label a few hours later, a message indicated that a label with the same name still exists. We also attempted to remove it using PowerShell with the label GUID but received the error: “We cannot remove rule ‘label name’ since it is already in a pending deletion state.”
Anyone comes across similar
Thank you
5 Replies
Before waiting longer, check whether the deleted label GUID is still referenced anywhere. In Security & Compliance PowerShell, capture the current state with:
Get-Label -Identity "<GUID>" | Format-List Guid,DisplayName,Mode,ParentId
Get-LabelPolicy | Format-List Name,Labels,Settings
1. Search the policy output for the deleted label GUID, including parent/sublabel relationships.
2. If a publishing policy still contains it, remove the label from that policy and publish the policy change.
3. Do not run Remove-Label repeatedly and do not delete an archived protection template used by encrypted documents.
4. Record the original deletion time, tenant region, GUID and PowerShell output.
5. If the GUID has no remaining policy dependency but is still PendingDeletion after several days, open a Microsoft Purview service request and ask for backend object cleanup.
Use a temporary unique display name for any replacement label rather than trying to reuse the reserved name immediately. Once support confirms that the old object and protection references are fully cleared, you can decide whether renaming is appropriate.
Thank you , Yes we checked in the PowerShell and it was still showing, It didn't made any improvement for 72 plus hours where Microsoft support team required to jump in and fix. The high level RCA was label and policies went on some kind of loop.
I have a policy that has been stuck in similar status for years now, so yeah, the backend can glitch from time to time. If more than a week has passed since you attempted the deletion, best open a support case.
Hi nvisa1090
This looks like the normal asynchronous deletion behavior for sensitivity labels.Once the label is in PendingDeletion, running Remove-Label again will return that error because the deletion has already been queued. The label object can also continue reserving its name until backend propagation completes.
You can confirm the state in Powershell with:
Get-Label -Identity "<label name or GUID>" | Format-List DisplayName,ModeIf it shows PendingDeletion, I would leave it rather than trying to delete it again. Microsoft notes that sensitivity label changes can take up to 24 hours, and in some cases 24–48 hours, to fully propagate.
If it is still stuck after that period, I would open a Microsoft support request because the label may need to be checked/cleaned up from the service backend.
Also, before deleting a sensitivity label, make sure it has first been removed from any label publishing policies that reference it.
The pending-deletion message means Purview accepted the removal request and propagation has not finished; running Remove-Label again will not accelerate it. Confirm that the label has been removed from publishing policies and that no parent or sublabel dependency remains, because Purview will not delete a label that is still published. Allow at least 24 hours for changes to propagate, then check the label by GUID with Get-Label. If it remains in PendingDeletion after that window, open a Microsoft Purview service request and provide the GUID, deletion time, and PowerShell output, because backend cleanup may be required. Be careful about recreating the same name. If the label applied encryption, Microsoft archives its protection template so protected content can still open, and that template can reserve the name. Use a new unique label name unless support confirms reuse is safe. Do not delete the archived protection template while encrypted content may exist
