If you've permanently deleted an item in Microsoft Outlook or Outlook on the web (formerly known as Outlook Web App), the item is moved to a folder (Recoverable Items > Deletions) and kept there for 14 days, by default. You can change how long items are kept, up to a maximum of 30 days.
What do you need to know before you begin?
Estimated time to complete each procedure: 3 minutes.
If you place a mailbox on litigation hold, the retention limit is ignored. For more information, see In-Place Hold and Litigation Hold.
You need permissions before you can do this procedure or procedures. To see what permissions you need, see the "Recipients" section in the Feature permissions in Exchange Online article.
You can use Exchange Online PowerShell to perform this procedure. To learn how to use Windows PowerShell to connect to Exchange Online, see Connect to Exchange Online PowerShell.
Change how long permanently deleted items are kept
In these examples, we increase the retention period to 30 days, the maximum for Exchange Online mailboxes. But you can set the number to whatever you like, up to that limit.
Example 1: Set Emily Maier's mailbox to keep deleted items for 30 days. In Exchange Online PowerShell, run the following command.
Need more details about using these commands? See Exchange Online PowerShell Help article Set-Mailbox.
Note
These commands only apply to existing mailboxes and will not affect new mailboxes that you create in the future. To change this setting on all new mailboxes, use a mailbox plan that has a new retention policy that applies to new mailboxes. See Mailbox plans and Set-MailboxPlan for more information.
More about deleted items and retention time
When a user permanently deletes a mailbox item (such as an email message, a contact, a calendar appointment, or a task) in Microsoft Outlook and Outlook on the web, the item is moved to the Recoverable Items folder, and into a subfolder named Deletions.
A mailbox item is deleted and moved to the Recoverable Items folder when a user does one of the following:
Deletes an item from the Deleted Items folder
Empties the Deleted Items folder
Permanently deletes an item by selecting it and pressing Shift+Delete
Users can recover, or purge, deleted items before the retention time for a deleted item expires. To do so, they use the Recover Deleted Items feature in Outlook or Outlook on the web. See the following articles for Outlook for Windows or for Outlook on the web.
Navigate to Exchange Online > Mailbox Management in the left pane. Under Exchange Configurations click on Configure Mailbox Retention Policy. Select the Retention Policy, URL that gives additional information on the policy to be applied. In the Retain deleted items for (in days) field, provide a new retention period.
Set Retention Policies using the Office 365 Portal
In the Inbox, expand the folder view. Right-click on a mail folder that you want to apply a retention policy to. Click "Assign policy", and select the policy you want to apply.
On the mailbox property page, click Mailbox usage, click More options, and then select one of the following: Use the default retention settings from the mailbox database: Use the deleted item retention setting that's configured for the mailbox database.
As mentioned above, files that have been deleted still remain on a computer's hard drive. The operating system does not know where to locate the file, so it becomes virtually invisible. Sometimes the file's data remains intact after it's been deleted, but sometimes it is broken into smaller pieces.
Use the Microsoft 365 admin center to Restore a user account
After the user account is deleted, it's listed on the Deleted Users page in the Microsoft 365 admin center. It can be recovered within 30 days after being deleted. After 30 days, the user account and mailbox are permanently deleted and not recoverable.
Log in to the admin portal at portal.office.com and go to Admin Centers > Exchange > Compliance Management > Retention Policies and edit the policy that you've created. Ensure that the Type on the edit screen is set to Default.
Notes: Email is automatically deleted from your Deleted Items folder after 30 days. Items removed from your Deleted Items folder are recoverable for 30 days. Junk email is retained for 10 days before it is automatically deleted.
Enter your user name and password, and then select Sign in. In the folder pane, right-click the message or folder for which you want to apply a policy and select Assign policy. Select the archive or retention policy you want to assign to the message or folder.
In the AutoArchive dialog box, click on "AutoArchive Settings." - Below, you'll find the option "Permanently delete old items." Make sure this option is unchecked. - Click "OK" to save your changes.
Deleted item retention isn't permanent. The default lifetime for retained items is 14 days. This setting can be changed using PowerShell though, on either a per mailbox or mailbox database level. To set it at a mailbox level, use the -RetainDeletedItemsFor parameter of the Set-Mailbox cmdlet.
Right-click the specified mail folder where emails are deleted automatically, and select Properties from the context menu. In the Properties dialogue, under the AutoArchive tab, you can check the Do not archive items in this folder option to disable the AutoArchive.
For example, popular email providers like Outlook and Gmail only store deleted emails for 30 days - so you'd have to remember to recover an email before it's too late!
If you head over to the Trash folder, you'll find your last 30 days' worth of deleted emails. You'll also find the option to Delete Forever, which will have them permanently deleted with only 30 days to recover them.
What is a standard email retention policy? A standard email retention policy stipulates the guidelines for how long emails should be retained before deletion. It varies by organization and industry but typically ranges from one to seven years, depending on legal, regulatory, and business requirements.
Introduction: My name is Stevie Stamm, I am a colorful, sparkling, splendid, vast, open, hilarious, tender person who loves writing and wants to share my knowledge and understanding with you.
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