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Thao_Dao_Phuong's avatar
Thao_Dao_Phuong
Brass Contributor
Jan 02, 2026

Archive-online

Could you please advise if there is any way to delete the mailbox data that is currently stored in the online archive?

Thank you.

6 Replies

  • Mohamed_Hashim's avatar
    Mohamed_Hashim
    Copper Contributor

    Yes you can delete mailbox data stored in the online archive.

    1. Open archive mailbox - delete folders/items which is the fastest way to delete
    2. Delete data using retention policy
    3. Hard delete if requirement is to delete all online archive data - unassign the license and Microsoft will soft delete the archive
    4. eDiscovery purge option

    Hope this give you more info.

    • Thao_Dao_Phuong's avatar
      Thao_Dao_Phuong
      Brass Contributor

      Thank you Hashim

      The storage in the Online Archive is extremely large almost a terabyte, so manual deletion isn’t feasible. I chose to use an MRM retention policy as the solution.

       

      • Mohamed_Hashim's avatar
        Mohamed_Hashim
        Copper Contributor

        Got it..Let me know if you need help to create MRM policy. Thanks

  • Scott_Schnoll's avatar
    Scott_Schnoll
    Brass Contributor

    Hi Thao_Dao_Phuong​, you have three options for this:

    1. Use Outlook to open the archive mailbox and manually delete the data.
    2. Delete the archive mailbox altogether (and then create a new, empty one if you need archiving).
    3. Use Microsoft 365 retention policies to delete data in the archive based on age (see https://learn.microsoft.com/purview/set-up-an-archive-and-deletion-policy-for-mailboxes for details).

    Hope this helps!

  • Scott_Schnoll's avatar
    Scott_Schnoll
    Brass Contributor

    Hi Thao_Dao_Phuong​, you have a couple of options for doing this:

    1. Use Outlook to open the archive mailbox and delete the data manually.
    2. Delete the archive mailbox altogether (and then provision a new one if you still need archiving).
    3. Use Microsoft 365 retention policies to delete data after a certain age. See https://learn.microsoft.com/purview/set-up-an-archive-and-deletion-policy-for-mailboxes for details.

    Hope this helps!

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