Microsoft 365 Retention and SharePoint Online Deletion Policy

Question

Hi All,&nbsp;&nbsp;We have defined a policy that included Exchange email, SharePoint Sites, and OneDrive sites.&nbsp;We noticed that a few SharePoint sites have to be deleted. We turned off the Retention for SharePoint Online sites as shown:&nbsp;&nbsp; after 15 hours after we turned off&nbsp; Retention for SharePoint Online sites, it's showing "This site has a compliance policy set to block retention" as&nbsp; shown:&nbsp; What should we do so that we are able to delete the SharePoint sites?&nbsp;&nbsp;Any help would be much appreciated.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;

vasilmichev · Answer

Wait and pray 🙂 Make sure the distribution status of the policy shows as completed, and if you still cannot remove the site, open a support ticket. It's in Microsoft's hands. FYI there are lots of similar complaints here and on other forums, here's one of the threads:&nbsp;https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/Office-365/Retention-Policies-and-SharePoint-sites/m-p/314404

tonyredmond · Answer

Aroh Shukla&nbsp;Do contact support. The more pain Microsoft gets on this point, the more they are likely to do something about it.

tonyredmond · Answer

aarohbits&nbsp;
&nbsp;
1. Yes. Once SPO has removed the policy from the sites. However, other retention policies might also apply to the sites, so you need to check that.
2. If you delete a site belonging to an Office 365 group, the group and all associated resources are removed.
&nbsp;
I don't know what impact will ensue because I don't know your tenant and what policies exist in the tenant. I don't do online support either, so if you have some concerns about making changes in a production environment either:
&nbsp;
a) engage an expert to come and help. They will likely assess the tenant first to understand the full context before making changes. At least, they should do.
b) create a test tenant and replicate your environment there. Make the changes and observe what happens. If you're happy, make the same changes in the production tenant.

aarohbits · Answer

Any advice experts, please?&nbsp;&nbsp;Norman Young&nbsp;TonyRedmond&nbsp;

aroh shukla · Answer

Thanks your pointer. I hope don't need to contact Microsoft support.

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Microsoft 365 Retention and SharePoint Online Deletion Policy

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