Automate Retention Policies with Microsoft Purview
You have many challenges managing data, such as data silos, storage issues, and compliance rules you must follow. Microsoft Purview helps by providing tools for data cataloging, classification, and records management. You can automate retention policies to reduce risk, improve efficiency, and streamline operations. This automation gives you greater control over your data and helps you comply with privacy regulations more easily. Use simple steps to set up and automate retention policies, making your work much easier.
Key Takeaways
Automating retention policies with Microsoft Purview helps you follow laws. It also lowers the chance of breaking rules.
Auto-labeling and adaptive policies save time. They help you make fewer mistakes. Managing data becomes easier and more trustworthy.
You need the right Microsoft 365 license and permissions. This lets you set up automated retention policies the right way and keeps things safe.
Connectors, APIs, and PowerShell scripts help you use data from many places. They let you automate jobs for your whole organization.
Check and update your retention policies often with Microsoft Purview’s tools. This keeps your data safe and helps you follow the rules.
Why Automate Retention Policies
Compliance Benefits
You must follow rules about keeping and deleting data. Automating retention policies helps you obey laws like HIPAA, GDPR, and Sarbanes-Oxley. Microsoft Purview uses Compliance Manager to help you understand these rules. You can make policies that fit health, finance, and privacy standards. Automation makes it simple to follow rules from other countries, like the Australia Privacy Act or the China Cybersecurity Law. When you automate retention policies, you set rules fast and correctly. This lowers your chance of breaking the law.
Tip: Automated retention policies let you keep only the data you need. You can delete what you do not need. This makes audits and investigations easier.
Efficiency Gains
Managing data by hand takes lots of time and work. Automation helps you handle more data without hiring more people. You can use dashboards to see updates and check compliance. Automated retention policies make tasks like sorting, backing up, and deleting data easier. This means fewer mistakes and saves money on storage and security.
Manual vs. Automated
Manual retention means you must find and label data yourself. This can cause mistakes and missed deadlines. Automated retention policies use AI and metadata to label and manage data for you. You can test policies before using them. You can set rules that change as your needs change. Automation lets you choose what happens when data reaches its end date, like deleting it or sending it for review.
Manual methods often lead to uneven enforcement and missed rules.
Automation uses the same policies every time, so there are fewer mistakes.
You get better control with automated reports and alerts.
Automation helps you handle more data as your needs grow, without extra work.
Automate retention policies to make your job easier, safer, and more dependable.
Prerequisites
Before you start with automated retention policies in Microsoft Purview, you need to check some things first. These steps help you get ready for policy automation.
Licensing
You need the right Microsoft 365 license to use automated retention policies. What you can do depends on your license type. The table below shows how E3 and E5 licenses are different:
If you want auto-labeling, adaptive scopes, or more automation, you need an E5 license. E3 licenses let you make basic retention policies, but you have to set them up yourself.
Note: You can upgrade your license if you want more automation features.
Permissions
You need the right permissions to make and manage retention policies. Microsoft Purview uses role-based access control, called RBAC. You should be in the Compliance Administrator role group or a custom group with the Retention Management role. If you only need to look at policies, you can use the View-Only Retention Management role. If you do cleanup work that changes retention policies, you need the Priority Cleanup Admin role. For mailbox retention, you need Exchange permissions, like the Mail Recipients role.
Microsoft says you should only get the permissions you need. You do not need to see the data, just make and use policies. Administrative units help you give permissions to only certain parts of your company.
Tip: Always use the least privilege rule to keep things safe.
Connectors
You can use connectors to automate retention policies for many data sources. Microsoft Purview works with third-party data connectors. These let you bring in and save data from outside Microsoft. You can see a list of connectors in the official documentation. Microsoft Graph APIs help you manage retention labels and policies for SharePoint, OneDrive, and Teams. Adaptive scopes let you set policies for certain sites or groups based on their details. PowerShell cmdlets also help you set policies and labels automatically.
Connectors let you bring in data from outside Microsoft 365.
APIs and PowerShell scripts help you automate tasks and set policies for lots of data.
Adaptive scopes help you set policies for the right places.
With the right license, permissions, and connectors, you can start automating retention policies in Microsoft Purview.
Automate Retention Policies
Automate Retention Policies in Microsoft Purview to save time. You can make fewer mistakes and help your company follow the rules. Auto-labeling and adaptive policies help your data follow the right rules. These features work even when your needs change. Here are easy steps to set up and use these tools.
Auto-Labeling
Auto-labeling puts retention labels on your data for you. It uses rules to find and label files and emails. You do not need people to label things by hand. This gives you more steady results.
How to Set Up Auto-Labeling for Retention Policies:
Check your license. You need an E5 license or E3 with the E5 Compliance Add-on.
Make a content type in the SharePoint Admin Center:
Go to Content Services and open the Content type gallery.
Add a new content type with a clear name and description.
Add site columns, like choice or managed metadata.
Publish the content type.
Match your site column to a managed property in the Search Schema:
Go to More features, then Search, and open Manage Search Schema.
Find the crawled property for your site column.
Map it to a RefinableString managed property, like RefinableString30.
Wait about 24 hours for the changes to finish.
Test your query in the Microsoft 365 Compliance Center:
Go to Records Management and pick Content Search.
Make a new search for your SharePoint sites.
Use a query like
RefinableString30:"Internal Meetings"to find your content.Check the results and change if needed.
Make the auto-apply retention label policy:
Go to Records Management and pick Label Policies.
Choose Auto-apply a label.
Name your policy and set the rule to apply the label to content with certain words, phrases, or properties.
Enter your tested query.
Pick the places, like SharePoint sites or Microsoft 365 Groups.
Pick the retention label to use.
Review and submit the policy.
Note: Auto-labeling works for files at rest, like in SharePoint or OneDrive, and emails in transit, like in Exchange. You can use simulation mode to test your policy before you use it for real. This helps you avoid mistakes and fix your rules.
Auto-labeling makes it simple to automate retention policies for your company. You get better rule-following and less work for people. You can also check and report how well your labels work.
Adaptive Policies
Adaptive policies let you automate retention policies that change as your company changes. These policies use adaptive scopes to target users or groups by things like department or country. You do not have to change your policies every time someone moves or gets a new job.
How to Create and Configure Adaptive Retention Policies:
Get the right permissions. Make sure you or your admin has Scope Manager or Compliance Administrator rights.
Sign in to the Microsoft Purview portal.
Go to Settings, then Roles and scopes, and pick Adaptive scopes.
Click to make a new scope:
Give it a name and description.
Pick the directory scope, like full directory or a certain admin unit.
Pick Users as the target.
Set the query details, like Department = Marketing.
Review and submit the scope.
Make a retention policy with the adaptive scope:
Go to Data lifecycle management, then Policies, and pick Retention policies.
Click to add a new retention policy.
Name your policy and add a description.
Pick Adaptive scope.
Add the adaptive scope you made.
Pick the places, like Exchange mailboxes or OneDrive accounts.
Set the retention time, like 7 years, and pick what happens at the end (delete, review, or do nothing).
Review and submit the policy.
Watch your policy by checking Policy insights in the Data lifecycle management section.
Tip: Adaptive policies update by themselves as users or groups change. You do not need to change the policy every time someone joins, leaves, or moves to a new department.
You can use PowerShell scripts or Azure Automation to change adaptive scopes. For example, you can filter users by special details or update scope rules on a schedule. This helps you automate retention policies for big or changing groups without doing it by hand.
Practical Examples:
Give a 7-year retention policy to all users in the Finance department by setting an adaptive scope for Department = Finance.
Use a shorter retention time for customer support emails by picking users with a certain job title.
Use adaptive policies to follow GDPR rules by deleting personal data when it is not needed.
Big companies and government groups use adaptive policies to automate retention policies for thousands of users. This helps them follow the rules and handle data well.
Remember: Always test your adaptive scopes before you use them. Use the Test Adaptive Policy feature in Microsoft Purview to make sure your policy picks the right users or groups.
Automate Retention Policies with these tools to keep your data safe, follow laws, and do less manual work. You can use wide policies and special labels for the best results. Check your policies often and change them as your business grows or rules change.
Best Practices
Monitoring
You have to check if your retention policies are working well. Microsoft Purview gives you tools to help watch and report on your policies.
Real-time dashboards let you see your data and if rules are being followed right now.
Compliance scorecards show how well you are following the rules.
Audit trails and incident timelines help you know who did what and when.
Executive dashboards help you see how data is used and spot risks.
You should look at important numbers to make sure your policies work. Check incident reports to see which files or emails triggered rules and who tried to share them. Use policy performance numbers to find problems or places to get better. Look at audit logs and use Activity Explorer to track what users do, file changes, and data sharing. Set up alerts that tell you right away if someone breaks a rule so you can act fast.
Tip: Try simulation mode before you turn on new policies. This lets you see what will happen without changing your data yet.
Check your policies often to keep them up to date as your business or rules change.
Common Pitfalls
When you Automate Retention Policies, you might run into some problems.
Users might forget to use labels or use them wrong, so results are not always the same.
It can be tricky to set up default labels for some SharePoint libraries or document sets.
Retention policies and labels can clash. The longest time wins, and labels usually come first, which can be confusing.
SharePoint subsite structures make it hard to target rules, so you cannot always apply them where you want.
Some data, like Q&A posts in Viva Engage, are not covered by retention policies.
To stop these problems, do these things:
Sort your data by type and why you have it before making rules.
Set clear times for keeping each data type based on business and law.
Use automation to put rules in place and check them, so people make fewer mistakes.
Check and change your rules often to match new laws or business needs.
Ask your legal, compliance, and IT teams to help plan your rules.
Note: Retention policies do not save copies of your data. Always use other backup tools if you need to recover files.
If you follow these best practices, you can Automate Retention Policies better and keep your data safe and following the rules.
You can Automate Retention Policies with Microsoft Purview to protect your data and meet rules. Here are the main benefits you get:
See all your data and know who uses it.
Stop risks before they happen with real-time alerts.
Meet laws like GDPR and HIPAA with easy reports.
Keep your data safe and let teams work together.
Save time by reducing manual work.
Start today by following these steps or reach out for expert support. Explore Microsoft’s training and consulting services to help you manage your data with confidence.
FAQ
How do you test a retention policy before applying it?
You can use simulation mode in Microsoft Purview. This tool shows which files or emails the policy will touch. The test does not change any data.
Tip: Always look at the simulation results before you turn on a new policy.
What happens if two retention policies cover the same data?
The policy with the longest time wins. If you use both a label and a policy, the label comes first. Check your settings so you do not get mixed up.
Can you automate retention for non-Microsoft 365 data?
Yes, you can use connectors to bring in data from outside Microsoft 365. After you connect, you can use the same retention policies for this data.
How do you update a retention policy for a new department?
Go to the Microsoft Purview portal. Change your adaptive scope to add the new department. The policy will update for users in that department by itself.
What should you do if a retention label is not applying?
Check your permissions and make sure the auto-labeling rule fits your data. Use the Content Search tool to test your query. If you still have trouble, look at the policy settings or ask support for help.