Do you have to keep material in SharePoint for a given number of years? Are there regulatory controls in place that have to be followed? One useful way of ensuring that critical information is not lost is to create a SharePoint Online Retention Policy and apply Retention Labels to sensitive data within the organization. They allow organizations to implement a set of rules designed to prevent valuable information from being unintentionally deleted or modified.
SharePoint retention policy is among the critical features of the Microsoft 365 Compliance Center which incorporates Records Management, DLP, and eDiscovery. These policies enable you to control the retention schedule of your company documents in a manner that is compliant with relevant laws and regulations.
This not only improves compliance but also takes a preemptive stance in protecting the organization’s management of data, assuring that the most sensitive data is protected against potential losses or leaks while mitigating the effects of losses. Utilizing and configuring these retention policies is part of the requirements for any organization that deals with confidentiality.
Read More: Meta Data Management for Long File in SharePoint and OneDrive?
Why do you need to set up retention policies on SharePoint sites?
There are many reasons why you might want to consider setting up a retention policy office on SharePoint sites. These policies can streamline the Data Management process and reduce the risk of loss of data. This can be done by automating the archiving and deleting the unwanted documents.
Users must keep in mind that this site has a compliance policy set to block deletion. It shows the company’s effort to protect other important and useful information and data. Some of the reasons are listed below:
- Legal Obligations: It might be an order either from a client or top management that you need to keep a document for a certain time. For instance, financial records can be kept by an organization for 7 years.
- Prevent inadvertent deletions: You should consider the retention policies office if you are worried about users deleting the files. They protect beyond the restoration period in the recycle bin.
How does a retention policy on a SharePoint site work?
A SharePoint recycle bin retention makes sure that important documents are stored for specific periods even if users delete the files. It supports compliance and managing of data by retaining or deleting files automatically based on set rules. Some of the ways retention policies in SharePoint sites work are as follows:
- If the document is deleted from the document library, it is sent to the recycle bin during the retention period. If attempting to delete a non-empty folder, it is possible that it is on hold. Meanwhile, a copy of it is created in the Preservation Hold Library.
- Once the retention period expires, the deleted document is sent to the recycle bin.
Step by step to create site retention policies in SharePoint
If you create retention policy office in SharePoint, it gives you flexibility to manage and preserve documents systematically. It makes sure that your data complies with organizational and regulatory requirements. Some of the steps to create retention policies are as follows:
- You can navigate to the Microsoft 365 App launcher and then click on Compliance.
- You see there is Microsoft Purview. From there, navigate to Data Lifecycle Management. You can click on Microsoft 365 and then navigate to Retention policies.
- If creating a new SharePoint policy, click on the new retention policy. Give a name to the policy and proceed to the next step.
- It is optional, but you can assign admin units to your policy. This is useful for large organizations with departments managing different sites or regions.
- If you want to select 365 retention policy, choose between Adaptive or Static. A Static scope policy means you will have to select specific sites for the policy. An Adaptive policy dynamically applies rules based on attributes of a site.
- Click on Adaptive policy and proceed to the next step.
- You can select the location for the policy, such as SharePoint sites or exchange mailboxes.
- If your site is connected to Microsoft 365 Group, then select the Apply option to group-connected sites.
- You should define how long you would like to retain your documents/items. You can choose to retain forever or specify a retention period.
- After this, review your settings and click Submit to publish the policy.
Read More: Simplifying Document Management
What happens after publishing the retention policy on the SharePoint site
Once the SharePoint Online retention policy is published, it begins to enforce the specified rules for managing content. This process ensures that documents are retained or deleted according to organizational standards and compliance requirements.
- Cannot delete a SharePoint site
If you are trying to delete a site either from the SharePoint admin center or the site itself. You will not be able to delete it. The error message will be displayed that a compliance policy is currently blocking this site deletion.
The same applies to lists as well, list cannot be deleted while on hold. You will have to remove the sublists before deleting the list. - Unable to delete folders with content
If your subfolders or files are present in a folder then you cannot delete it. if attempting to delete a non-empty folder, it is possible that it is on hold. You will have to remove the contents, subfolders, or files if you want to delete that folder.
- Creation of Preservation hold library
Once a site retention policy is applied and a document is deleted then a preservation hold library is created. It is also known as sharepoint legal hold. This library stores all deleted documents for the retention period. It is not visible in the site content. To access it you type the following in the site URL PreservationHoldLibrary.
To conclude, SharePoint retention policies enable organizations to manage the data following the regulations. It prevents the organization from accidental loss of important documents. It helps them streamline the governance of data.
FAQ’s
- How can you assign a retention policy to a user?
You can exchange the admin center to apply a retention policy to a single mailbox. You can go to recipiency -> mailboxes. In the user mailbox, you can click on mailbox features. In the retention policy list, select the policy you want to apply in the mailbox. After that, you can click Save.
- What is the retain policy for SharePoint?
If users delete content from SharePoint, OneDrive, or Exchange, a retention label is applied to that content so it can be retained for 120 days.
- What is the difference between backup and retention policy?
A backup retention policy stores data for recovery in case of corruption. A data retention policy preserves data for a specific time to meet business needs.
Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked*