M365 Changelog: Data Lifecycle Management - Removing the Preservation Hold Library (PHL) access in SharePoint

MC504322 – Microsoft is making an update to the ability to remove the Preservation Hold Library in SharePoint and OneDrive from being accessible through Site Contents or the site’s navigation.

This message is associated with Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 103613

When this will happen:

Rollout will begin in late January and is expected to be complete by end of February.

How this will affect your organization:

When users perform actions in SharePoint or OneDrive which require content to be retained behind the scenes, the Preservation Hold Library (PHL) is used to hold this content. The PHL library was never meant to be a user-visible system library or be accessed by users, therefore this change will remove the PHL from the site navigation. In the case of specific scenarios where it may be required, site collection administrators will continue to be able to access the PHL by navigating directly to it using its URL. 

What you need to do to prepare:

No action is needed to enable this change. You may want to alert your Microsoft Purview Data Lifecycle Management or Microsoft Purview Records Management admins and update relevant training and documentation.

Get started with Data Lifecycle Management in the Microsoft Purview compliance portal:

• Microsoft Purview compliance portal for WW and GCC cloud environments
• Microsoft Purview compliance portal for GCC-High cloud environments 
• Microsoft Purview compliance portal for DoD cloud environments 

Learn more: 

• Learn about retention policies & labels to retain or delete 
• Learn about Microsoft Purview Data Lifecycle Management 

Additional information