Microsoft Copilot
Glossary
Retention and deletion policies
Retention and deletion policies are rules that decide how long content such as files, emails and chats must be kept and when it may or must be deleted, to meet legal, regulatory and business requirements.
Also known as: retention policy, data retention policy, retention labels, records retention
How they work in Microsoft 365
Microsoft Purview applies retention in two ways. Retention policies cover whole locations, such as all SharePoint sites or all mailboxes. Retention labels are applied to individual items and can also declare them as records. Both can keep content for a period, delete it after a period, or both, and retained content stays recoverable even if a user deletes it.
What they leave open
Retention rules act on content, while the containers stay. A site whose content has expired can live on empty, and a site with no retention rule can keep old files for ever. Retention also does not decide who still owns a workspace or whether anyone needs it, so it works alongside lifecycle and cleanup processes rather than replacing them.
Where Rencore fits
Rencore complements Purview retention. Policies flag SharePoint and OneDrive files older than five years and sites inactive for more than 90 days, an action removes old file versions, and automations archive or delete sites, with an approval step where you want one.
