Change the Retention Policy Applied to a Mailbox

Applies to: Office 365 for professionals and small businesses, Office 365 for enterprises, Live@edu

A retention policy is a group of retention tags that are applied to a mailbox. Retention tags specify how long a message is kept and the action to be taken when the message reaches the specified retention age. When a mailbox is created, a default retention policy is applied to it. The following table shows the three different types of Exchange Online organizations and the retention policies that are applied by default for each type.

Microsoft Office 365 for professionals and small businesses	Default MRM Policy
Microsoft Office 365 for enterprises	Default MRM Policy
Microsoft Live@edu	MRMPolicy-DefaultMailboxPlan or MRMPolicy-GalDisabledMailboxPlan

If you create additional retention policies for your organization, you can apply a different retention policy to user mailboxes. However, a mailbox can have only one retention policy applied to it. To change the retention policy applied to a mailbox, follow these steps:

1. Select Manage My Organization > Users & Groups > Mailboxes.
2. Select the mailbox you want to change and click Details.
3. Under Mailbox Settings, select a different retention policy from the Retention Policy drop-down list.
4. Click Save.

Run the Managed Folder Assistant

After you change the retention policy applied to a mailbox, the mailbox has to be processed by the Managed Folder Assistant before the change takes effect. In Exchange Online, the Managed Folder Assistant is configured to process all mailboxes in a cloud-based organization once every seven days. You can wait until the Managed Folder Assistant processes the mailbox, or you can force the Managed Folder Assistant to process a mailbox immediately. For more information, see Run the Managed Folder Assistant.