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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...
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
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.
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.
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
- Great Thanks. Perfect. 👍👍👍
- This worked for me! First deleting all items within the list then allowed for me to delete the list itself. Thanks so much!
- OR a more simple approach:
- Delete the list items first
- Then delete the list object
Worked for me, thanks!
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
