Forum Discussion
How long is litigation hold data retain after license downgrade?
Changing the license has no effect on holds, just like many other functionalities across O365 do not have licensing requirements enforced. That said, a license is still required as per the usage terms, so you are responsible for removing any holds before downgrading/removing licenses.
So are you saying that once holds are enabled they remain forever no matter what the license?? If I have a license and enable hold, then downgrade the license to one that does not provide for hold what happens to any data related to the hold? Are you telling me that any hold data is retained no matter license was applied long term? If so where is the documentation that says this?
I would expect that once you downgrade the license the hold data is lost. My question is when does that loss happen? Immediately? or after 30 days? or when?? Again, a link to documentation would be great.
RobertCrane Hi Robert, I don't think there is any official documentation that confirm Vasils reply more than what's required from a license point of view.
"To place an Exchange Online mailbox on Litigation Hold, it must be assigned an Exchange Online Plan 2 license. If a mailbox is assigned an Exchange Online Plan 1 license, you would have to assign it a separate Exchange Online Archiving license to place it on hold."
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/compliance/create-a-litigation-hold?view=o365-worldwide#assign-an-exchange-online-plan-2-license
Feature availability
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/office365/servicedescriptions/exchange-online-service-description/exchange-online-service-description?redirectedfrom=MSDN#feature-availability
Preparations before creating an inactive mailbox
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/compliance/create-and-manage-inactive-mailboxes?view=o365-worldwide#preparations-before-creating-an-inactive-mailbox
That's the best I can find (as per now).
ChristianBergstrom my question is not about enabling the feature. My question is about data retained after a license downgrade. I would find is extremely improbable that after a license downgrade on a single mailbox litigation hold data is retained in the long run. If it was why would you continue to use more expensive licenses with that enabled feature?
what I want to know is when that feature is removed what happens to the accumulated data from the more powerful license. As I said I find it hard to believe it is retained after a downgrade. What I want to know is whether it is documented how long that hold data is retained for after the downgrade and as I said I can’t see that being forever given the license applies to a single mailbox not the tenant,
