O365 Archiving retention policy and Notes.

[thecomputerguy]

Per this thread here: https://www.technibble.com/forums/threads/how-do-i-reduce-an-o365-mailbox-size.85042

I was able to successfully setup a retention policy using the recommended policies by MS. The policies I have in effect are:

Anything older than 1-Year in the Deleted items -> Permenantly delete
Anything older than 3-Years in the entire Mailbox -> Move to Archive

I still have no Delete policy because the client got anxious when I asked him at what point we could permanently delete emails.

I got a few calls from people at the company saying "ZOMG Where's my notes!"

I didn't realize at the time (which I should have, my fault) that a policy applied to the whole mailbox would also drag notes out. I moved the notes from the archive back into the default notes folder and the next day I got another call because the notes had been automatically archived again. I assume when you move something out of the archive it retains the original date stamp.

It appears that copy and pasting the notes from the archive will re-stamp the note and the note then stays in the default note folder.

My question is what is the best way to exclude notes from being archived moving forward? Some of these notes are old notes but they are added onto frequently.

Asking users to search in two different areas for notes is not an option, and it appears then when you search in Outlook by default the online archive is not included, not to mention all of the notes are not in the same spot.

 

[callthatgirl]

Omg your post gives me the shookies just reading it lol!

I bet there is an exclude policy for that but this scares me..."Anything older than 1-Year in the Deleted items -> Permenantly delete"

My clients would have a heart attack with that.

 

[thecomputerguy]

Omg your post gives me the shookies just reading it lol!

I bet there is an exclude policy for that but this scares me..."Anything older than 1-Year in the Deleted items -> Permenantly delete"

My clients would have a heart attack with that.

Well if they deleted it once then keeping it for a year should be plenty of time to realize they shouldn't have deleted it. It's like the idiots that store important data in their recycle bin. Clients either let their deleted items grow indefinitely, never deleting anything, or don't ever delete anything at all.

I emptied a recycle bin for a client once and they were like "Oh but I store stuff there" ... WHY?

I cleared the deletion policy with the client by the way.

And no I don't see anywhere in the retention tags that allow me to exclude a specific folder from the retention tag.

 

[Porthos]

I emptied a recycle bin for a client once and they were like "Oh but I store stuff there" ... WHY?

Had one of those clients as well.

 

[thecomputerguy]

Well I found the solution and BOY IS IT DUMB

You have to create a personal retention tag. Personal retention tags MUST be applied manually through OWA on a PER USER BASIS

So basically create a personal tag that says Move to Archive > Never

Then the user, or you, have to log into that persons email account through OWA and right click the notes folder, and any other folder you want to apply it to and select Assign Policy > then assign the personal tag you created manually.

So dumb.

 

[thecomputerguy]

I guess the other option is to create a retention tag that is NOT applied to the entire mailbox but create separate tags for each folder you want archived.... The two big ones would be Inbox and Sent ... So I guess it wouldn't be that bad but now I'm afraid to undo the policy tag.

Does anyone know if I remove the 3-Year mailbox wide tag and add two new tags in it's place one for inbox and one for sent will it leave whats already been archived alone or is it going jack everything up and delete stuff?