Forum Discussion
Specific differences between a Litigation Hold, and a Forever Retention Policy for OneDrive data?
So, Litigation Holds may only be applied to mailboxes, where as Data Governance Based Retention Policies which you can configure via the Security and Compliance Center maybe applied across wider Microsoft 365 services.
It is Microsoft's current recommendation to use Data Governance based Retention Policies in preference to other methods such as Holds and eDiscovery cases and holds.
With Retention Policies, any content that a user deletes will be copied to a hidden folder and preserved for the duration of the retention policy which is applied.
Check out this article which explains Retention in M365 - https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/compliance/retention?view=o365-worldwide
It specifically refers to Litigation Hold as an "older feature."
Thanks PeterRising !
One follow up. Do you know what happens to that OneDrive data covered under the Retention Policy, if that user's account is completely removed from M365? Do I have to migrate it over to an existing user, or an existing Document Library, in order for it to remain?
