Skip to content

Setting Up Retention Labels in SharePoint

When using the SharePoint repository type, Microsoft Purview retention labels are used to create labels that can designate documents as regulatory records. These labels are then assigned to SharePoint. To create these labels, Microsoft Purview and PowerShell are used. Follow these steps to create a new retention label:

Important

Access to the Purview Center is required. This is included with the Microsoft 365 Business Premium license or an E3/E5 plan as of March 1, 2025.

However, always check whether access to the Purview Center is included in your current licensing plan, as licensing terms may change. For more information, visit the official Microsoft website.

Creating a Retention Label

  1. Start in the Document Central - Administrator role center.
  2. Navigate through the Compliance menu to Retention Labels.
  3. Perform the action Create Retention Labels.
  4. A message window will open, and upon confirmation, this action will redirect you to Microsoft Purview.
    • You may land on a window titled Welcome to the new Microsoft Purview portal! Click on Get Started here.
  5. If you are not on the Label page, you can reach it by navigating to Data Lifecycle Management -> Retention Label.
  6. Perform the action Create Label in the menu bar. The action is located behind a plus icon.
  7. Follow Microsoft's instructions to create your label, or follow the next steps.
  8. Name your retention label. This is the name of the label that your users will see in Document Central where it is published (e.g., Outlook, SharePoint, and OneDrive). So remember to choose a name that helps them understand what it is used for. (e.g., 11 years storage)
  9. You can add a description for users in the user description field, which is visible in Document Central. You can also use the administrator description field, but this description can only be viewed in Purview.
  10. Click Next.
  11. You can now define a label setting:
    • Retain items forever or for a specific period
    • Enforce actions after a specific period
    • Label items only Decide what should happen to the document when the retention period expires.
  12. Select a desired label setting and click Next.
  13. In the next step, define the retention period. Predefined periods will be offered to you, which you can select from the dropdown menu. Alternatively, you can also set a custom time, which is also available in the dropdown menu.
  14. Choose when the retention period should begin. You can choose between the following options:
    • Date of item creation
    • Date when items are labeled.
  15. If you selected Retain items forever or for a specific period, you must now select what should happen to the document after the retention period:
    • Automatically delete items
    • Change label
    • Disable retention setting
  16. If you selected Enforce actions after a specific period, you must now select which action should be performed after the retention period:
    • Automatically delete items
    • Change label
  17. Click Next.
  18. If you selected Change label, you can select a replacement label by clicking the +.
  19. In the final step, you will see a summary of your created retention label. With Create Label, you can complete the creation.
  20. Next, you will be asked if you want to publish the labels immediately. If you need more labels for additional settings, select No and repeat the steps to create the label. Otherwise, you can proceed with the publication.

Label Settings Supported by Microsoft Purview in Document Central

Option Action Description Document Central
Retain items forever or for a specific period Automatically delete items Labeled items will be permanently removed wherever they are stored. Automatic Deletion
Change label After the retention label expires, you can decide whether the item receives a new label, thereby extending the retention period. Depending on the selected successor retention label Retain Item/Automatic Deletion
Disable retention setting If the retention settings are disabled, items with labels will neither be automatically retained nor deleted. All items you want to remove must be deleted manually. Retain Items
Enforce actions after a specific period Automatically delete items Labeled items will be permanently removed wherever they are stored. Automatic Deletion
Change label After the retention label expires, you can decide whether the item receives a new label, thereby extending the retention period. Depending on the selected successor retention label Retain Item/Automatic Deletion
Label items only Items are only labeled The items are not retained, and users cannot edit, move, or delete them. Just Label

More Information

For more information on creating retention labels, see the Microsoft documentation.

Setting Up Regulatory Records in Azure

"Regulatory Records" is a feature in Microsoft Purview Records Management that is used to securely store document versions by preventing users from removing a label from a SharePoint or Azure document. To enable the "Regulatory Records" feature, a PowerShell script must be executed, which is provided by the wizard. Download the script and run it on your Windows client. If you do not know how to run a script, follow these steps:

Caution

This part is for Windows users only.

Changing the Execution Policy

If the PowerShell script cannot be executed, it may be because the policy for running PowerShell scripts is not enabled. To enable this policy, follow the first step:

  1. Start PowerShell as an administrator.
  2. Type Get-ExecutionPolicy and save your execution policy.
  3. Type Set-ExecutionPolicy RemoteSigned and press Enter.
  4. Confirm the new policy with the keywords below.

Info

To return to your previous execution policy, repeat step 2 using the saved execution policy from the first step.

Running the PowerShell Script

To run the PowerShell script on Windows, right-click the document and select "Run with PowerShell." If this script is for enabling the regulatory records feature, enter your Azure password in the authentication window. If you are not using the regulatory records wizard in Document Central on the retention label page, the following PowerShell script can also enable the regulatory records feature.

1
2
3
4
5
    Install-Module -Name ExchangeOnlineManagement
    Import-Module ExchangeOnlineManagement
    Connect-IPPSSession -UserPrincipalName "UserEmail"
    Set-RegulatoryComplianceUI -Enabled $true
    Disconnect-ExchangeOnline

Important

Replace "UserEmail" with your authentication email, and then the script can be executed. Do this by pasting the command into the PowerShell console. The part "-Enabled $true" in step 4 can be changed to "-Enabled $false" to disable the feature.

Using PowerShell to Enable the Regulatory Retention Label Feature

  1. Open Windows PowerShell.
  2. Connect to Security & Compliance PowerShell.
  3. Use PowerShell to view the option to mark content as a regulatory record.

Publishing the Retention Label

The following steps must be completed to publish the retention label you created. A publication will make the label available in Document Central so that it can be used from there.

  1. Start in Microsoft Purview from Microsoft 365.
  2. Select a retention label and perform the action Publish Label. Alternatively, click the three dots next to the retention label and select Publish Label.
  3. Select the labels to be published. This can be done for all labels at once.
  4. Click Next.
  5. Under Policy Scope, leave the setting Entire Directory under Management Unit and then click Next.
  6. Under Type of Retention Policy to Create, select the option Static and click Next.
  7. If you want the labels to be applied only to SharePoint, select Let me choose specific locations and the location SharePoint classic and communication sites. Otherwise, select All locations. Includes content in Exchange emails, Office 365 groups, OneDrive, and SharePoint documents..
  8. Click Next.
  9. Name your policy.
  10. Review your policy under Complete.
  11. Click Submit to start the publication of the label(s).

Warning

Please note that publication can take up to 7 days. Once the label has been successfully published, go to the Document Central – Retention Label page in Business Central and perform the action Synchronize Labels to synchronize your created retention labels.

Synchronizing Retention Labels to Document Central

Once the labels are created and published, you can synchronize them to Document Central. This step is required for you to use the labels in Document Central.

Please follow these steps to synchronize retention labels to Document Central:

  1. Start in the Document Central - Administrator role center.
  2. Find the Document Central - Retention Label page through the Compliance menu.
  3. Perform the action Synchronize Retention Labels in the menu bar.
  4. The retention labels will be added to the list.

Activating Retention Labels

To use the retention labels, you must have completed the creation of SharePoint retention labels or ABS retention labels, depending on which repository you are using.

To enable the retention labeling feature in Document Central, follow these steps:

  1. Start as Document Central - Administrator in the role center.
  2. Click on Compliance in the menu bar and perform the action Compliance - Compliance Setup.
  3. Enable the option Retention Labeling.

Compliance Administrator

If the user is set up as a Compliance Administrator in the Document Central user configuration, they can change, remove, or set a retention label for a document entry. Setting a new retention label is only possible if the existing retention label is removed first.

For SharePoint documents that are marked as a record, Compliance Administrators can additionally use the action Toggle Record Lock to lock or unlock the record. Only Compliance Administrators can change or clear retention labels on documents that are marked as a record.

Important

For SharePoint, the user must also have sufficient permissions in SharePoint:

  • To change or remove retention labels, the user must be a member of the corresponding SharePoint group with the required rights or have edit rights for the Document. No Compliance Administrator is needed here.
  • For documents marked as records, the user must be a Site Collection Administrator for the current site.

Important

The option Retention Labeling must be enabled in the Compliance Setup before you can enable the Compliance Administrator for users.

To set up a user as a Compliance Administrator, follow these steps:

  1. Start in the Document Central Admin role center.
  2. Open Users through the Setup menu.
  3. Select the User to be set up as a Compliance Administrator.
  4. Open the User Setup by clicking on the user's name.
  5. Enable the toggle for Compliance Administrator.

Info

If a document has a retention label with the property "Regulatory Record," the retention label cannot be removed or changed, not even by a Compliance Administrator.

Setting Up Users to Manually Set Retention Labels

In some cases, it is necessary to give your users the ability to view the retention label when they manually save a document through the Document Central FactBox.

To allow users to see the retention label when manually saving a document through the Document Central FactBox, follow these steps:

  1. Start in the role Document Central - Administrator.
  2. Click on Compliance in the menu bar and perform the action Compliance Setup to open the Compliance Setup.
  3. Enable the option Retention Label Visibility.

To allow users set up as Compliance Administrators to change retention labels when manually saving documents, follow these steps:

  1. Start in the role Document Central - Administrator.
  2. Click on Compliance in the menu bar and perform the action Compliance Setup to open the Compliance Setup.
  3. Enable the option Retention Label Manually.

To enable the visibility of retention labels in Azure Blob Storage for a new document version, follow these steps:

  1. Start in the role Document Central - Administrator.
  2. Click on Compliance in the menu bar and perform the action Compliance Setup to open the Compliance Setup.
  3. Enable the option Enable Version Visibility.

Info

The assignment of retention labels and their visibility for versions is currently only supported for Azure Blob Storage repositories.

Setting Up Azure Blob Storage Retention Labels

If you are using the Azure Blob Storage repository type, the creation of retention labels occurs directly in Document Central.

To create a retention label directly in Document Central, follow these steps:

  1. Start on the Document Central - Retention Label page.
  2. Perform the action New to create a new retention label.
  3. Give your retention label a name and set the retention duration.
  4. Optionally, you can use Set Retention After to define when the label should be set by the job queue Set Retention Label.

Information

In Document Central, you can easily edit or delete your created ABS labels. Documents that have already been labeled will not be changed. This functionality also allows you to select a label and change the retention duration directly from the Document Central - Document Definition page.

Apply Retention Label Only to Document Entry

For an Azure Blob Storage repository, you can configure a retention label to apply only to the document entry. In this case, the document itself will not be labeled and can still be deleted, edited, or moved.

To configure the label so that it is only applied in Document Central:

  1. Start on the Document Central - Retention Label page.
  2. Select the retention label you want to edit.
  3. Enable Apply Only to Document Entry.

To allow users to change retention labels when manually saving a version of a document, follow these steps:

  1. Start in the role Document Central - Administrator.
  2. Click on Setup in the menu bar and perform the action General to open the Document Central - Module Setup.
  3. Switch to the Retention Configuration tab.
  4. Enable the option Enable Manual Version Retention Labeling.

Info

The calculated/defined end time of the retention label must not be before the end time of the previous version.

Setting Up the Retention Crawler

If you have already used Document Central without the retention labeling feature, you may want to retroactively label the existing Document Central documents. In this case, the so-called Retention Crawler can be used. The Retention Crawler is a separate queue that runs through the existing document entries and creates retention queue entries according to the retention label configuration.

To automatically apply retention labels to already stored documents using the Retention Crawler, follow these steps:

  1. Start in the role Document Central - Administrator.
  2. Click on Compliance in the menu bar and perform the action Compliance Setup.
  3. Enable the option Enable Retention Labeling.
  4. Configure the crawler by specifying on which days and at what time it should run.
  5. Now activate the Retention Crawler with the option Run Crawler. When the crawler is active, the configuration cannot be edited.

Info

Additionally, the option "Search by Versions" is available in the compliance configuration. This allows the Retention Crawler in the job queue to also capture individual versions of documents in Azure Blob Storage and automatically synchronize their retention labels.

The labels will be applied according to the Retention Label Assignment Configuration, which will be explained below.

Setting Up the Retention Label Assignment Configuration

Where which retention labels are applied (manual and automatic document storage) can be configured at three different levels. The first (lowest) level is the configuration of a retention label for a specific document library. The next (middle) level is the configuration of a retention label for a content type. The third (highest) level is a specific content type within a particular document library.

Further Explanation/Example

If a value is specified at the document library level, all documents uploaded to this document library will receive the specified retention label. However, if a content type archived in the document library has a different retention label value configured, this will override the value from the document library when saving a document. This value will in turn be overridden by a value set in the specific content types of the chosen document library.

Level 1 - Configuring a Retention Label for a Document Library

To set up a retention label to be used for a document library, follow these steps:

  1. Navigate to the Document Central - Document Library List page.
  2. Click Edit in a document library to which you want to assign the retention label.
  3. Under Document Library Settings, find the field Retention Label. If a value is specified here, all documents uploaded to this document library will receive the specified retention label.
  4. Once you have defined your retention label in the Document Library, all documents stored in the document library will receive the specified label.

Level 2 - Configuring a Retention Label for a Content Type

To set up a retention label to be used generally for a content type, follow these steps:

  1. Navigate to the Document Central - Content Type List page.
  2. Click Edit in a content type to which you want to assign the retention label.
  3. In the header, find the field Retention Label. If a value is specified here, all documents uploaded with this content type will receive the specified retention label.
  4. Once you have defined your retention label in the Content Type, all documents stored with the content type will receive the specified label. Any values defined in the document library where the content type is stored will be overridden.

Level 3 - Configuring a Retention Label for a Content Type Assigned to a Specific Document Library

To set up a retention label to be used for a content type that is specifically assigned to a certain document library, follow these steps:

  1. Navigate to the Document Central - Document Library List page.
  2. Click Edit in a document library where you want to assign a retention label to a specific content type.
  3. Switch to the rows that contain the content types assigned to the document library.
  4. In the rows, you will find the column General Content Type Retention Label. If a value is displayed here, all documents uploaded with this content type will receive the specified retention label. This value is global and corresponds to the value defined in the content types. It is applied regardless of where the content type is stored.
  5. Additionally, there is a column Retention Label. If a value is specified here, this will be used instead of the retention label defined in the document library and the general content type configuration.

Level 4 - Configuring a Retention Label for a Metadata

To set up a retention label based on a metadata value:

  1. Navigate to the Document Central - Metadata Management page.
  2. Click Edit in a metadata management row to which you want to assign a retention label for a specific metadata value.
  3. Enable the option Retention definition. This is only possible if the option Enable Metadata Templates is enabled. Currently, it is only possible to select one Retention definition.
  4. Switch to the rows that contain the metadata values assigned to the metadata management row.
  5. In the metadata value rows, you will find the values that have been set up. If no values are present, first perform the following steps in metadata management.
  6. In the Retention Label column, select which retention label should be used based on the metadata value.

See also: