Ya know ... I just don't get it sometimes

[thecomputerguy]

Over and over again ... I get clients that max out their 50GB Mailbox (which honestly is insane to me), then they Max out their 100GB Mailbox after I upgrade them to EXO Plan 2. I login to their system and see...

Oh wow since you are using the default MRM policy you have 700,000 items in your deleted items, we can clear up a ton of space, enable your online archive, enable auto-expanding and then empty your deleted items and you should be good to go for a bunch more years after that.

I can't tell you have many times they respond with, "I cAnT eMpTy My DeLeTed ItEmS, tHaT's WhErE i PuT aLL mY iMpOrTaNt StUfF"

This is why I can't change the default MRM Policy for any tenant. Because of Rando's like this.

 

[britechguy]

It's become clear to me that the inane idea that "you can keep everything, since it's digital" has not only been promulgated for far too long by far too many, but has become "the accepted wisdom."

Digital information is no different, in any way, than paper information is. Certain things need to be kept, others don't, and you had better be making those decisions in realtime, not after you have hundreds of GBs to TBs of data that you could never hope to sift through carefully if you started today and never stopped until you died.

Anyone who uses any form of Trash/Recycle Bin/Deleted Items for storage of "important stuff" gets one response from me: You had better get it out of there. These are not, and never were, intended as long term storage for anything - hence their names. You need to create a reasonable filing system, and File Explorer (or Outlook, or whatever) makes that dirt simple.

Retention of deleted items should never, ever, ever be "forever" by default. And companies that make it so deserve to be shot. It's the garbage can, for heaven's sake. Do you never empty yours that's in the break room or next to your desk?

 

[thecomputerguy]

It's become clear to me that the inane idea that "you can keep everything, since it's digital" has not only been promulgated for far too long by far too many, but has become "the accepted wisdom."

Digital information is no different, in any way, than paper information is. Certain things need to be kept, others don't, and you had better be making those decisions in realtime, not after you have hundreds of GBs to TBs of data that you could never hope to sift through carefully if you started today and never stopped until you died.

Anyone who uses any form of Trash/Recycle Bin/Deleted Items for storage of "important stuff" gets one response from me: You had better get it out of there. These are not, and never were, intended as long term storage for anything - hence their names. You need to create a reasonable filing system, and File Explorer (or Outlook, or whatever) makes that dirt simple.

Retention of deleted items should never, ever, ever be "forever" by default. And companies that make it so deserve to be shot. It's the garbage can, for heaven's sake. Do you never empty yours that's in the break room or next to your desk?

Yeah agreed but with the Default MRM Retention Policy at O365 the default setting is never delete.

Also Microsoft allows for unlimited auto-expanding archives up to like 1.5TB I think for accounts that have EXO P2

 

[ThatPlace928]

Over and over again ... I get clients that max out their 50GB Mailbox (which honestly is insane to me), then they Max out their 100GB Mailbox after I upgrade them to EXO Plan 2. I login to their system and see...

Oh wow since you are using the default MRM policy you have 700,000 items in your deleted items, we can clear up a ton of space, enable your online archive, enable auto-expanding and then empty your deleted items and you should be good to go for a bunch more years after that.

I can't tell you have many times they respond with, "I cAnT eMpTy My DeLeTed ItEmS, tHaT's WhErE i PuT aLL mY iMpOrTaNt StUfF"

This is why I can't change the default MRM Policy for any tenant. Because of Rando's like this.

It's crazy that people use their trash can for hanging on to "important" stuff. I had this happen about a month ago, where documents and pics were in the recycling bin. I moved them to a folder on a stick called "My Stuff", did the Windows 10 installation and driver updates, moved the folder to the desktop, and explained to the customer what that folder was for.

Until this forum, I never thought to check the trash. I wonder if I deleted stuff on past computers without knowing it? If so, no customer has asked about it so I'm hoping it really WAS trash.

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

Setup automatic archiving....works great! M365 Biz Prem has a nearly unlimited one. Does the archiving automatically, maintains subfolder structure 'n all. Just pick a time like..."Email older than 3 years...move to archive". So darned easy and automated.

I have lots of clients that have mailboxes larger than 50 gigs...some of them have a business model that just works that way. And since I don't like to support old, slow, pokey hardware... in other words, my clients hardware is healthy and fast and has adequate RAM, their Outlook runs just fine if mailboxes are over 50 or 60 or 70 gigs. But I don't have any that get to 100 gigs.

But seriously..archives..kick it in!

 

[Sky-Knight]

Yep, if you're deploying Exchange Online Plan 2, and you've got enabled automatically expanding archiving AND flipped on the archive for the mailbox you're seriously missing the bus.

Even if you've just got Exchange Online Plan 1, the default configuration punts everything older than 2 years into the online archive, which has another 50gb of space. So flip on the archive and get double the space. Users that need more get Exchange Online Plan 2, which has an archive that tops out at 1.5tb I think? It's pretty bonkers huge...

Then you just adjust the legacy MRM for the enterprise to make things fit. I had a client that needed that to drop to SIX MONTHS to keep several users below the 100gb mark. They were emailing around a TON of high resolution photoes all day, so there really wasn't any other way to deal with it.

 

[Fred Claus]

I have a client who builds bridges. He has ever email he's ever gotten or sent since 2009. He constantly complains his storage is full. Complains even more when I tell him how to get rid of the stuff, he never wants to do it.

 

[timeshifter]

Users that need more get Exchange Online Plan 2

I've been wanting to ask about this. Got a client who's using Business Standard and his 50GB inbox and his 50GB archive are filling up. So can I just add Exchange Online 2 license to his user account and now he's got 1.5TB of archive space?

 

[callthatgirl]

I love and adore my email hoarders lol.

Do him better, buy a 2nd mailbox, add to Outlook. Then start copying all his older mail to the 2nd mailbox. You can change the download limit to 2 weeks and then....rinse repeat. He can have all his email in Outlook and search is fast as all get out. I just moved 900 gigs or so last fall to one Outlook profile, 10 mailboxes (limit of Outlook) and all set to 2 weeks. Charged him $6000 but it got done.

 

[Sky-Knight]

I've been wanting to ask about this. Got a client who's using Business Standard and his 50GB inbox and his 50GB archive are filling up. So can I just add Exchange Online 2 license to his user account and now he's got 1.5TB of archive space?

If you add Exchange Online Plan 2 to a given user, they'll instantly have 101gb of archive storage. If you want the 1.5TB you MUST enable auto-expanding archive. This is a change via powershell on the tenant, and on the mailbox if you do it after the fact. You also cannot force the expansion, and it happens slowly on a monthly basis.

Which is why it's UTTERLY CRITICAL for EVERYONE to flip those switches on EACH AND EVERY TENANT AND MAILBOX AS YOU MAKE THEM.

If you fail to do this, your client will have a bad experience at some point. All this wonder is great, but it MUST BE MANAGED!

 

[britechguy]

There really seems to be an utter lack of understanding that hoarders, being hoarders, will always "expand to fill all available space."

It's a blessing, and not in disguise, that the issue eventually gets forced unless said hoarders have perpetual enablers.

 

[Philippe]

I can't tell you have many times they respond with, "I cAnT eMpTy My DeLeTed ItEmS, tHaT's WhErE i PuT aLL mY iMpOrTaNt StUfF"

Happened to me a couple of time over here too...

 

[Sky-Knight]

There really seems to be an utter lack of understanding that hoarders, being hoarders, will always "expand to fill all available space."

It's a blessing, and not in disguise, that the issue eventually gets forced unless said hoarders have perpetual enablers.

Yes, but in our space we're heavily incentivized to enable that behavior, until the break is as huge as possible. Because when that break happens, it's payday.

 

[britechguy]

Yes, but in our space we're heavily incentivized to enable that behavior, until the break is as huge as possible.

I'm not arguing with what you've said here, but I will say that we should "get the H*LL over it" and not do it.

We are, in a sense, IT Doctors. Our goal should always be aimed at healing the patient, not accelerating the disease. And we do have a choice about which we do.

That it's to our financial benefit to be enablers doesn't mean that it's right that we be enablers. One payday should be enough, or at least enough that we make the effort to try to "cure the disease" rather than feed it.

 

[Blues]

I know in many instances when clients were transitioned over to M365 and such many organization and IT people took the opportunity to turn on retention policies that were strict and when pushed back it was "No that's how the new system is you have to accept it move and backup items now" the main thing I saw turned on was auto pruning the deleted items because for some illogical reason it is common practice to "save" stuff by placing it in what is effectively a digital trash bin.

 

[callthatgirl]

In-place archive completely chokes Outlook to death, I stand behind the solo mailbox and move data method.

IMO, it's the clients data and techs should have to adjust for that, do what they want. Charge them for the time, they will pay.

 

[dannyict]

I hvae one like that, in the trash folder are even folders per year with all mails from that year

 

[britechguy]

in the trash folder are even folders per year with all mails from that year

Well, at least that person is organizing. Getting them to pull those folders OUT of trash after creating a real folder for them should not be a battle royal.