How to Create a Retention Policy in Microsoft 365

Sign in to Microsoft Purview

Open your web browser and go to the Microsoft Purview portal at https://purview.microsoft.com. Sign in using one of the admin credentials listed above. You'll see the portal's welcome screen with the navigation menu on the left.

Access Data Lifecycle Management

In the left navigation pane, select View all solutions, then click Data Lifecycle Management. Under Data Lifecycle Management, select Policies, and then choose Retention.

Create a new retention policy

Click New Retention Policy. In the policy creation form, enter a name such as 7-Year Retention Policy (or "7yr retention policy") and add a clear description, for example "Retain content for 7 years for compliance." Click Next to continue.

Define the policy scope

In the policy wizard, review the policy scope section. To apply the policy across your entire organization, keep the scope set to All Users and Guests, then continue through the wizard to configure the remaining settings.

Configure administrative units (optional)

On the Administrative Units step, choose whether to apply the policy to the entire directory or to specific admin units. To target specific groups, click Add or remove admin units and select the units you want. For organization-wide coverage, leave the setting as Full directory.

Specify how locations are selected

On the Type step, choose how you want to specify locations for the retention policy:

• Adaptive: Uses attributes or properties (such as Department or Site URL) for dynamic targeting. The policy automatically updates as users, groups, or sites matching the criteria change.
• Static: Lets you manually choose specific locations. This is the recommended option for this scenario.

Select Static to identify exact locations for the policy.

Select locations

On the Locations step, toggle on the locations you want the policy to apply to:

• Exchange mailboxes
• SharePoint classic and communication sites
• OneDrive accounts
• Microsoft 365 group mailboxes & sites

Make sure each location's toggle is set to On.

Configure retention settings

On the Retention settings step, configure the following:

• Select Retain items for a specific period.
• Set the retention period to 7 years.
• Set Start the retention period based on to When items were last modified.
• Under At the end of the retention period, select Do nothing, so content is not automatically deleted after 7 years.

Review and submit the policy

On the Review and finish step, confirm the policy name, description, selected locations, and retention settings. The summary should show:

• Policy name: 7yr retention policy
• Locations: Exchange mailboxes (All Recipients), SharePoint classic and communication sites (All Sites), OneDrive accounts (All Sites), Microsoft 365 Group mailboxes & sites (All Groups)
• Retention settings: Retain items for 7 years based on when they were last modified; don't delete items at the end of the retention period

Click Submit to activate the policy.

Confirm the policy was created

After submission, a confirmation screen indicates that the retention policy was successfully created. It can take up to a week for the policy to be enforced across all selected locations. From this screen, you can also access related tasks:

• Create another retention policy
• Create an adaptive scope, using attributes or properties (like email address or site URL) to define dynamic groups or sites for future policies
• Create a retention label, for more granular control over individual documents or items

Explore retention labels for more granular control

Retention labels give you finer control over data management than a broad policy alone. They let you:

• Specify custom retention durations for specific items.
• Apply longer or shorter retention periods as needed.
• Align retention with data sensitivity and classification to strengthen data governance.

To create one, click Get started next to "Create a retention label" on the confirmation screen.