Mail retention policy for Archive M365 Data Lifecycle Management

[newtotechcom-J]

Hi,

I want to apply an email retention policy such that, the emails in the mailbox are retained for 3 years and get deleted and the mail in the archive is there for 5 years and get deleted.

Now, I have enabled a retention policy through Data lifecycle management-> Microsoft 365.
The policy will retain emails for 3 years and after that, the emails will be deleted.

But, the issue is that this policy is being applied to the archive as well and I want to exclude the archive so that the archive will have a different policy- email retention for 5 years, could someone please suggest how to achieve that using Data lifecycle management-> Microsoft 365?

This is what the policy looks like in my archive email:

[#2]

Hi @newtotechcom-J,

in Microsoft 365, you can apply different retention policies to the mailbox and the archive.
However, it’s important to note that the same retention policy is applied to the primary and archive mailbox.

To apply a different retention policy to the archive, you can use the Move to Archive action in your retention tags. This action moves items to the archive mailbox after a specified period of time. Please note that the Move to Archive action must have a lower retention age than the Delete action.

Applying Retention Policies to Archive Mailboxes - Microsoft Community

here are the steps for configuring archive and deletion policies for mailboxes:

1. Activate Archive Mailboxes for Users: Ensure that each user in your organization has an archive mailbox.

2. Generate New Retention Tags for Archive and Deletion Policies: Retention tags specify the duration a message stays in the mailbox and the action taken when it reaches the specified retention age.

3. Formulate a New Retention Policy: This policy transfers items to a user's archive mailbox after a designated period and also removes items from the Deleted Items folder once they surpass a specific age limit.

4. Assign the New Retention Policy to User Mailboxes: A retention tag applies retention settings to individual messages and folders in a user's mailbox.

It's important to note that the actual rules governing the movement or deletion of items and the timing of these actions are defined by retention tags.
Retention tags are associated with an MRM retention policy, which is then assigned to a user's mailbox. When a message reaches its retention age, it is either moved to the user's archive mailbox or deleted.

For more detailed instructions, please refer to the article:
Customize an archive and deletion policy (MRM) for mailboxes | Microsoft Learn

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Kindest regards,

Leon Pavesic
(LinkedIn)

[#3]

Hi @LeonPavesic 

I have created a retention policy, but I can see that there is an existing default MRM policy.

How can I enforce this my retention policy to all users instead of default MRM policy?

[#4]

Hi @newtotechcom-J,

thanks for your update and your question regarding assigning your custom retention policy for all your users.

To do that you can follow these steps:

1. Sign in to the new Exchange admin center (https://admin.exchange.microsoft.com), and go to Mailboxes.

   • A list of all user mailboxes in your organization is displayed.
     
     

2. Select ALL the mailboxes by selecting the box for Display name.

   • This action selects all user mailboxes.
     

3. Select the Mailbox policies option.

   • In the Mailbox policies flyout pane, under Retention Policy, select the retention policy that you created.
     

4. Select Save to save the new retention policy assignment.

   • This step saves the assignment of the new retention policy to all selected mailboxes.

For more information you can use these useful links:
Apply a retention policy to mailboxes in Exchange Server | Microsoft Learn
Customize an archive and deletion policy (MRM) for mailboxes | Microsoft Learn

Please click Mark as Best Response & Like if my post helped you to solve your issue.
This will help others to find the correct solution easily. It also closes the item.

If the post was useful in other ways, please consider giving it Like.

Kindest regards,

Leon Pavesic
(LinkedIn)

[#5]

Thank you.
One last question.
As per the method above it will apply the retention policy to existing users.
So, for future users, how to automate it or how to make my policy as the default policy?

[#6]

Hi @newtotechcom-J,

you're welcome.

Regarding your last question:

To implement a new retention policy as the default for your organization, modify the default mailbox plan via Exchange Online PowerShell with the following steps:

1. Connect to Exchange Online PowerShell.

2. Retrieve details about the existing mailbox plans within your organization by executing the following command:

   Take note of the currently set default mailbox plan.

Get-MailboxPlan | Format-Table DisplayName, RetentionPolicy, IsDefault

• Assign the newly created custom retention policy to the default mailbox plan. Assuming the default mailbox plan is named "ExchangeOnlineEnterprise" and the new custom policy is referred to as "Custom Policy," use the following example:

Set-MailboxPlan "ExchangeOnlineEnterprise" -RetentionPolicy "Custom Policy"

• Confirm the modification by verifying the assigned MRM retention policy to the default mailbox plan. Rerun the command from step 2 to review the changes.

You can use this link as a reference:
Customize an archive and deletion policy (MRM) for mailboxes | Microsoft Learn

Please click Mark as Best Response & Like if my post helped you to solve your issue.
This will help others to find the correct solution easily. It also closes the item.

If the post was useful in other ways, please consider giving it Like.

Kindest regards,

Leon Pavesic
(LinkedIn)

[#7]

Thank you so much for sharing this, it is helpful.
I'll implement this, I just have one concern, if I applied my new custom policy and I want to exclude some users, is there a way?
And, if I want to exclude them should I do this before making my custom policy as default or after?
Sorry for too many last questions!

[#8 · Accepted solution]

Hi @newtotechcom-J,

no problem 🙂

Exclusion of users from retention policies can be accomplished using the Set-RetentionCompliancePolicy cmdlet.

This cmdlet provides the capability to modify existing retention policies by adding or removing specific locations, such as user mailboxes:

Set-RetentionCompliancePolicy -Identity "YourPolicyName" -RemoveExchangeLocation "email address removed for privacy reasons"​<br />The above command is designed to eliminate the mailbox of the email address removed for privacy reasons from the retention policy named YourPolicyName.<br /><br />Set-RetentionCompliancePolicy (ExchangePowerShell) | Microsoft Learn<br /><br />As for when to exclude users, it’s generally more efficient to exclude them before making the custom policy default. This way, you ensure that the policy is correctly configured before it’s applied to all users.<br />

Please click Mark as Best Response & Like if my post helped you to solve your issue.

This will help others to find the correct solution easily. It also closes the item.

If the post was useful in other ways, please consider giving it Like.

Kindest regards,

Leon Pavesic
(LinkedIn)

[#9]

Thank you so much for your help, marking this as best response!