Thank you Alexander. I have an E3 license. In the Compliance Admin Portal > Information Governance section, when I click the Labels tab and then click a label, the Automatically apply label option appears. However, the options are limited to (a) applying labels to content that contains sensitive information [unlikely to be used because retention is rarely based on sensitivity], (b) applying labels to content that contains specific words, phrases, or properties [keyword search], and (c) apply labels to content that matches a trainable classifier [uses only ready-to-use basic classifiers 6 with an E3 license]. Can you let me know if you don`t see these options? Retention labels can be published in different locations, depending on what the retention label does. Organizations using retention policies with an E3 license should understand the potential risks of not being able to prove what was destroyed. Once retention policies are in place, the next most complex task may be the disposal approval and destruction process for records that require formal review and approval of disposition, including the requirement to create a shredded list. Use a retention policy to assign the same retention settings for content at the site or mailbox level, and use a retention label to assign retention settings at the item level (folder, document, email). Finally, Microsoft can provide a Microsoft 365 retention policy setting to allow email to be moved to archive mailboxes. At this point, the need for Exchange Online mailbox retention policies is eliminated. This document is permanently deleted after seven years, as this is the shortest retention period for the element of these two scoping strategies.
You can apply a single policy very effectively to multiple sites or to specific sites or users. The page above also states: „There is also a maximum number of supported policies for a tenant: 10,000. However, for Exchange Online, the maximum number is 1,800. The maximum number includes retention policies, retention label policies, and automatic application retention policies. Hi Tony, thank you very much for this article. I am with a small business of 200+ users. We have not currently enabled archiving for any users (except me for testing). I tested with the old retention policies and retention tags to start implementing it in our environment, but after reading this article, I wonder if I should start with Microsoft`s new method.
We use Exchange Online and based on our licenses, our users get 50GB of storage, but some users are approaching that limit and many need to store emails from 10 to 20 years old. I wanted to enable online archiving for users who reach their limit, but create a new retention policy and change the default value from „Move 2 years to archive by default” to „Never delete default” so that users have control and can then assign the tag of their choice for all their Outlook folders (Inbox and others). However, I have a hard time understanding how to implement this policy with the new Microsoft retention policies. Thank you Tim, good points. E3 licensees have the ability to automatically apply storage labels in three ways: (a) sensitivity, (b) simple keyword search, (c) six fairly limited trainable classifiers (E5 holders can create their own trainable classifiers, or can do so using Syntex for certain common document types). The meaning of „manual” is interesting: when you publish labels as a retention policy on a SharePoint site, the administrator or site collection owner must access the library, and „manual” must select a default retention label that applies by default to all library content. Anyone with member rights can remove or change the default retention label „manually” (even with labels applied automatically, unless the item is declared as a record or made read-only). One of the biggest challenges with retention labels (which match retention classes well) is applying them correctly, either automatically or manually. Microsoft`s view seems to be that there is too much content, go with the automatic approach. I would prefer non-label-based retention policies (what I call „safety net” policies) and selectively use labels for specific content that needs to be kept longer. Also, keep in mind that disposal controls only work with labels, but there are gaps in assessments (insufficient information to make a decision) and disposal (insufficient information about what has been destroyed).