Forum Discussion

MCT

Mar 13, 2019

Solved

SharePoint Online: "List cannot be deleted while on hold or retention policy."

I am trying to help a client clean up some very old lists and sites. However, whenever I try to delete anything, I get the message above. I've checked for an eDiscovery site, for classification label...

Norman Young
Mar 13, 2019
We had the same issue and could not find any hold - retention policies in any place. We had to escalate to Microsoft support and they removed the hold on the back-end.

I hope this helps.

Norm

Norman Young

MVP

Mar 13, 2019

What is the error?

Kelly_Edinger

MCT

Mar 13, 2019

"List cannot be deleted while on hold or retention policy."

Norman Young
MVP
Mar 13, 2019
Check the site and list for any hold or retention policies.

Site Settings > Site Collection Administration > Content Type Policy Templates.
List Settings > Information management policy settings.
- Kelly_Edinger
  MCT
  Mar 13, 2019
  Thanks Norman - I have checked those places, which makes this so odd. I'm not sure if these got migrated in from an older version of SharePoint, but I'm finding no way to turn them off.
  - Kimberly Roetman
    Iron Contributor
    Mar 13, 2019
    Are any of the list items on Compliance Hold?
    Go to the list - switch to Classic Experience - select the list item - click the ... - select Advanced - Compliance Details. If the Hold Status is On Hold you can remove from hold from this dialog box.
    
    OR a more simple approach:
    - Delete the list items first
    - Then delete the list object