Feedback : building the foundations for AI adoption with AI itself
I would like to share some feedback on the recent SharePoint Copilot improvements. As a consultant, trainer, and Microsoft MVP working daily with Microsoft 365 Copilot customers, I am genuinely impressed by the direction SharePoint is taking. For years, we have told customers that successful AI adoption requires strong information architecture, metadata, governance, content organization, and naming conventions. What I find particularly interesting today is that SharePoint Copilot is starting to help organizations build these foundations instead of simply depending on them. Features that assist with site creation, page creation, content organization, metadata generation, metadata enrichment, and automation significantly reduce the effort required to establish a well-structured SharePoint environment. This is a meaningful shift. AI is no longer only consuming well-organized knowledge. It is increasingly helping users create and maintain that organization. From my perspective, this may become one of the most important accelerators for Microsoft 365 Copilot adoption because many organizations struggle more with content structure than with AI itself.
Posting news article not sending notification to Teams activity feed
Hello I am trying to troubleshoot why when posting a news article it is not coming up in people's Teams activity feed. We have a hub of sites branded as the intranet but they are not news organisation sites. When news posts are published from any site in this hub, people are receiving notifications of news posts in their Teams activity feed. Eg. 'Joe Blogs published news'. On a stand alone communication site, I publish a news post, for the members of that site they do not receive the notification in their Teams activity feed. Some facts We are not using Viva Connections - so there is no home site (no Viva license yet) No sites are news organisation sites Internet sites are not necessarily followed (most people do not follow) so this has no bearing on receiving notification in Teams Notification settings in Teams are not disabled for test users What other steps can I take to investigate why this site not connected to the internet hub is not pushing notifications? It is one example of a site, there are many that do not push notifications as well. Thank you.
Storing and organizing performance review data - SharePoint lists or something else?
My team has been asked to move our performance review records from a legacy HR system into something within M365. Someone suggested SharePoint lists but I'm worried about permissions (employees shouldnt see each others reviews), workflow complexity, and whether it'll scale. We have about 400 employees. Is SharePoint the right tool for this or should I be looking at something purpose-built that integrates with our M365 environment?
SharePoint Online Site Deletion blocked by Retention Policy although no content is retained
Hi everyone, I'm trying to understand whether this behavior is expected or if other organizations are experiencing the same issue. Environment SharePoint Online (Microsoft 365) Microsoft Purview Retention Policy Retention duration: 180 days Trigger: based on last modified date After retention period: Do nothing The intention of the policy is not to automatically delete content. We only want to prevent deletion for 180 days and allow deletion afterwards. Microsoft previously explained to us that retention applies to the content/items, not to the container (the SharePoint site itself). Problem We are currently unable to delete SharePoint sites. When attempting to delete a site from the SharePoint Admin Center we receive the following message: This site can't be deleted at this time because it is blocked by a compliance policy. What we already checked For the affected site: CompliancePolicyIds = empty ArchiveStatus = NotArchived SensitivityLabel = empty The Preservation Hold Library is empty: Preservation Hold Library => Items = 0 We also inspected the internal DLC properties of the site and found entries such as: dlc_sitehaspolicy dlc_sitehasexpirationpolicy dlc_webhasexpirationpolicy Even after clearing these values for testing purposes, the site still could not be deleted. Important Observation If we explicitly exclude the site from the retention policy, deletion becomes possible. This makes it appear that the retention policy is blocking deletion of the site container itself, even though our understanding was that retention should only protect retained content and not permanently prevent deletion of the entire SharePoint site. Has anyone else observed this behavior? Additional OneDrive Issue We are seeing a similar problem with unlicensed OneDrive accounts. Many of these OneDrive sites: are already archived are shown as blocked by retention/compliance cannot be deleted remain present for years For example: ArchiveStatus = FullyArchived CompliancePolicyIds = empty The accounts appear in the list of unlicensed OneDrive accounts, but we are unable to permanently remove them while the retention policy is in effect. Has anyone found a practical way to clean up or remove these orphaned/unlicensed OneDrive sites when a tenant-wide retention policy is configured? Questions Has anyone seen a situation where: CompliancePolicyIds is empty the Preservation Hold Library is empty but site deletion is still blocked by a compliance policy? Does a retention policy configured as: Retain for 180 days Then Do nothing intentionally block deletion of the entire SharePoint site container? Is it expected that excluding a site from the retention policy immediately makes deletion possible? How are other organizations handling site lifecycle management when tenant-wide retention policies are enabled? Has anyone experienced similar issues with unlicensed OneDrive accounts that cannot be deleted because of retention/compliance requirements? Any experiences, recommendations, or explanations would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!
Recycle Bin and Site Content Hidden for Site Members and Site Visitors
I posted this before but made a mistake with my write up, so I am reposting. I have a requirement that the Recycle bin and Site Contents should be be hidden from the Site Members and Site Visitors. Please how can I achieve this because the Server Infrastructure activation is not working for me. Any workarounds? Please helpDynamic Mandatory Fields
In a SharePoint library, I have folders which are = a. Admin b. Events c. Furniture and Moves d. Janitorial and Maintenance e. Parking and Transportation f. Shipping and Receiving g. Supplies and Equipment h. Waste and Recycling I have Meta data across the library whose data type are all choices and are: a. Document Type = Contract, Financial, planning b. Building = Gym, Garage, Heating c. Asset Category = Office, Playground d. Fiscal Year = FY23, FY24, FY25, FY26, FY27 e. Vendor = Maple Leaf, Canadian Tire, Home Depot f. Status = Active, Pending, Not Active g. Retention Label = 3 years, 5 years h. Service Type = Admin, Events, Furniture and Moves, Janitorial and Maintenance, Parking and Transportation, Shipping and Receiving, Supplies and Equipment, Waste and Recycling Service Type and Retention Label are mandatory fields, with the Rule below for all the files in the various folders: IF Folder Name = Admin, then Service Type = Admin and Retention Label = 5 years; the mandatory fields should be Document Type, Status and Fiscal Year IF Folder Name = Events, then Service Type = Events and Retention Label = 3 years; the mandatory fields should be Document Type, Status and Fiscal Year, Building and Vendor IF Folder Name = Furniture and Moves, then Service Type = Furniture and Moves and Retention Label = 3 years; the mandatory fields should be Document Type, Status and Building IF Folder Name = Janitorial and Maintenance, then Service Type = Janitorial and Maintenance and Retention Label = 3 years; the mandatory fields should be Document Type, Status and Fiscal Year IF Folder Name = Parking and Transportation, then Service Type = Parking and Transportation and Retention Label = 3 years; the mandatory fields should be Document Type, Status and Fiscal Year IF Folder Name = Shipping and Receiving, then Service Type = Shipping and Receiving and Retention Label = 3 years; the mandatory fields should be Document Type, Status IF Folder Name = Supplies and Equipment, then Service Type = Supplies and Equipment and Retention Label = 3 years; the mandatory fields should be Document Type, Status and Fiscal Year IF Folder Name = Waste and Recycling, then Service Type = Waste and Recycling and Retention Label = 3 years; the mandatory fields should be Document Type, Status and Vendor I have used Column Default Value Settings for SharePoint to display Auto-Display the Service Type and Retention Label, but I cannot seem to perform the conditional mandatory fields using Validations setting for the other requirements. Please help
