MC264360 – Until this release, attempting to delete a file with a retention label configured to “retain items for a specific period” in SharePoint caused an error blocking the deletion of it.
To improve consistency of user experience between OneDrive and SharePoint, the behavior of any retention label set to “retain items for a specific period” in SharePoint will change to allow users to “delete” the document which will then be preserved in the Preservation Hold Library until the specified period expires.
This message is associated with Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 82063.
When this will happen
Microsoft will begin rolling this out in early August and expect to complete rollout late August.
How this will affect your organization
Users in SharePoint will now be able to “delete” files labeled with a retention label configured to “retain items for a specific period” as this operation is no longer blocked with an error message. When deleted, these files will still be preserved for compliance purposes by moving a copy of them to the “Preservation Hold Library” of the site where they can be accessed by eDiscovery and other compliance solutions.
What you need to do to prepare
No action is needed to enable this feature; however you may want to update any training materials and communicate this change to your users or team responsible for Information Governance and Records Management at your organization.
Note: If you would like to completely prevent the user deletion or editing of files in SharePoint, you can create a new retention label which declares the item as a record. Declaring content as a record prevents both deletion and editing activities on the file.
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