Microsoft Outlook: How to Assign a Retention Policy

Use the Assign Policy feature to apply a retention policy to your messages in your mailbox. Retention policies control how long your messages will be saved. To manage your mailbox, you can delete messages as you receive them or assign a retention policy on a case-by-case basis. By default, all messages are deleted after three (3) years unless you delete them manually.

This knowledge article demonstrates how to assign a retention policy.


Step 1

Select email message(s), click Assign Policy, and then choose one of the retention policy options.

Title: Microsoft Outlook; Description: image of the Assign Policy options

The retention policy has now been applied to the message.

Title: Microsoft Outlook; Description: image of the applied retention policy