Re: Problems with settings of retention policies - Email and calendar - Office 365

I setup a P1 account just for myself and set up two user mailboxes, each with admin rights (mailbox1 for my private emails, mailbox2 for my business emails).

The setup for both user mailboxes was done in a similar way.

I did not set any retention policies during the setup, but now I see that both mailboxes have very different retention ploicies. Also, retention policies for mailbox1 seem to be confliction.

Specifically:

Mailbox2 has no retention policies set.

Mailbox1 has following 6 retention policies set: Name/retentionaction/retentionperiod

1month delete/delete/30days

1week delete/delete/7days

Default 2year move to archive/default archive/2year

Never delete/delete/unlimited

Personal 1year move to archive/archive/1year

Personal never move to archive/archive/unlimited

These policies seem conflicting. I do not want to have any retention policies set, but a remark says that "the policy was assigned by your administrator and cannot be changed".

But I am the sole administrator and I never set the policies.

So what to do?

How can I remove the retention settings?

This 6 retention tags are all available tags which can be used by users.

Unless being tagged to mailbox folders or emails by end users manually, these tags will not take effect.

No action is required.

Thanks for the info.

On my PC, following is shown under File -> Info -> Account settings:

Mailbox1: "Mail messages in this account are automatically moved to the online archive after 2years"

Mailbox2: nothing is written about moving to archive.

Does that mean that a tag is set for mailbox1? But I did not set it. How can I remove the tag?

Yes, the default tags has one called move to archive after 2 years.

But, if you has not enabled personal archive, you can ignore it. Even you enable the personal archive, (ECP, mailbox, details, mailbox feature, archive), emails will be moved to archive mailbox, will not be deleted. It's really not recommended to remove the default tag.

The difference you see between these 2 mailboxes is due to the managed folder assistant running interval. You will see move 2 archive after 2 years for both mailboxes eventually.

Dear Winston,

Your info is really helpful for me as a newcomer to Office 365.

I looked into how to enable the archive.

I found following help file:

help.outlook.com/.../ms.exch.ecp.enablearchivemailbox.aspx

It says to do the following:

Enable the archive mailbox

1. Select Manage My Organization > Users & Groups > Mailboxes.

2. Select the mailbox you want to enable the archive mailbox for and click Details.

3. Under Mailbox Features, select Archive and click Enable.

However, when I follow this procedure for my account, I do not see "Mailbox Features" under "Details"

best regards,

turboman

Hello Turboman,

Thanks for your feedback.
Do you mean that you cannot see "Mailbox Features" under "Details" at Exchange Control Panel?

If so, you may refer to the following steps to enable archive via PowerShell.
1. Install and Configure Windows PowerShell.
2. Connect Windows PowerShell to the Service.
3. Run command “Enable-Mailbox user –Archive”.

Best regards,
Claud

Hello Turboman,

How are the things going?
In addition, do you need further assistance on the issue?

Best regards,
Claud

hello Claud,

To answer your questions, I cannot see "Mailbox Features" under "Details" at Exchange Control Panel.

Should I see it when I have a P1 account?

I am not an IT specialist, and would like to avoid using PowerShell.

best regards,

turboman

Hi turboman,

I have just tested this with my P1 account, and the Mailbox Features is available. If you select Details, it should pop up a new window with sections including Mailbox Settings, Email Options, Organization, etc. Mailbox Features is towards the bottom of this list.

I have the same issue. I have two Office 365 domains (both P1, separate accounts). One account has the "Mailbox Features" and the other account does not. I have also noticed that whatever service is suppose to cleanup the Deleted Items after 30 days is not working. I tried all the powershell commands and they do not work. For reference, here are my other messages related to this issue:

Online Archive / Archive Mailbox Not Available

community.office365.com/.../131287.aspx

P1 plan, retention policies and archiving

community.office365.com/.../133242.aspx

hello Alex,

Like JustinS, I still cannot see "Mailbox Features" either.

I got a quasi-confirmation from my post in another thread.

Evan Zhang MSFT Support "Thanks for your information, we also tested and noticed this could be an issue. [...] And as far as I know, Anna is working on the Retention Policy icon disappearing issue in another thread, so you may discuss with her or you could open a new thread for individually discussion if needed."

Disable All Retention Policies

community.office365.com/.../146250.aspx

I looked through Anna's activity however I could not find the thread he mentioned.

Hello turboman,

Your post was responded to in a private message.

Please go to the Your Details section on the right side of the community site.

Click Private Messages.

Click the subject title of the response to read the message.

You can reply by using the form in this display.

Thank you,
Alexander Judd
O365 Community Support

I replied too.

As I am not an IT specialist, I hope a solution can be found without Powershell.

Thanks for the help.