Forum Discussion
Adaptive scope syntax
Hi MC_Edwards,
There is an error in the setup. Here are the steps:
- Create an adaptive scope. Choose user. Use the query: IsInactiveMailbox -eq "True"
 - Create a retention policy. Configure the settings to retain for 2 years then delete. On the "scope" step of the wizard, choose adaptive scope, then select the scope you created in step #1.
 - The policy will only apply to mailboxes included in the adaptive scope, so therefore only inactive mailboxes.
 
For the active user policy, I would follow the same steps, except use this query for the adaptive scope, just to ensure there is absolutely no overlap: IsInactiveMailbox -eq "False"
Here's a blog post about working with adaptive scopes + mailboxes: Using Adaptive Policy Scopes to Apply M365 Retention to Shared, Resource, and Inactive Mailboxes - Microsoft Community Hub
- Igbins81Dec 15, 2023Copper ContributorHello Erica,
I have like to create an adaptive scope for all M365 service date and apply a retention of 5years to it. Example Exchange, SharePoint, OneDrive and MS Teams. Please can you guide me on this.- Sophie_KeDec 15, 2023
Microsoft
Hi Igbins81, will you be scoping to all exchange mailboxes, all SharePoint sites, all users' OneDrive, and all Team messages? If so, you can use static scope instead and create a retention policy. If you are trying to target specific groups of users or sites, you can definitely use adaptive scope.
You can follow the steps here: Automatically retain or delete content by using retention policies | Microsoft Learn
Please let me know if you have any follow up questions!
- Igbins81Dec 16, 2023Copper ContributorSophie_Ke, We already have a manual process using static for exchange mailbox date, one retention policy keeps items forever for if someone leaves the company and the other 6 years retention period and delete items automatically. I want to stop manually going to add these users. So I want to automate to retain these two scenarios using adaptive scope as oppose to a manual process. Adding new users to the 6 years retention period and adding terminated users to the keep forever retention. Please advise best way to archive this goal using the adaptive scope and query that can be used.