Exclude or remove sites from a SharePoint Online retention policy

• Applies to:

  SharePoint Online

This article describes how to exclude or remove a website from a retention policy.

Note

• You must have the necessary permissions in the Compliance Admin center to do this. See Permissions in the Microsoft Purview compliance portal and Microsoft 365 security center.
• The steps in this article apply to SharePoint sites, OneDrive storage sites, and Microsoft 365 groups locations.
• Changes to the retention policy might take up to 24 hours to take effect.

If the retention policy applies to all sites, you can exclude a site from the retention policy, but not remove it. If the retention policy applies to selected sites, you can remove the site, but not exclude it.

Edit the retention policy

1. Go to the Microsoft Purview compliance portal.

2. Select Data lifecycle management > Microsoft 365 > Retention Policies. You'll be shown all the retention policies that are configured in your tenant.

3. Select the policy that you want to edit, and then select Edit Policy.

4. In the Edit Retention Policy window, navigate to Locations Applied, and then select Let me choose specific locations if it is not already selected.

5. Next to SharePoint Sites, select Exclude sites. Then, go to the next steps (Exclude a site from the retention policy).

   Note: If Exclude sites is not available (grayed out), this means that the retention policy applies to a specific site. In this case, go to the Remove a SharePoint site from the retention policy section.

Exclude a site from the retention policy

1. Select Exclude Sites.

2. Enter the URL of the site that you want to exclude, and then select the plus (+) button.

3. Select the check box for the site. You can add other sites, if you want.

4. After you enter all the sites that you want to exclude, select Exclude at the bottom of the window to confirm the changes.

5. Select Save.

Remove a SharePoint site from the retention policy

1. Next to SharePoint Sites, select Choose sites.

2. Select the "X" character for the site URL that you want to remove from the policy.

3. Select Done > Save.