Retention policy behavior when messages are moved between folders.

 Below are some examples to explain the behavior of retention policy when messages are moved between folders.

Example 1 :

Message in the Inbox is tagged by Inbox retention tag . If this tagged message is moved to a folder on which there no tag is applied directly,then the tag on the message is removed and  message will not be processed .

Example 2 :

Message in the Inbox is tagged by Inbox retention tag . If this tagged message is moved to a folder on which a different tag is applied directly,then the message will inherit the retention tag settings set on the target folder.

Example 3 :

When a message with a personal tag applied (on the message itself) is moved to a folder which does not have any tag applied,the message retains the personal tag even after moved to the target folder.

Example 4 :

When a message with a personal tag applied (on the message itself) is moved to a folder which already has tag applied,the message still retains the personal tag.

Example 5:

Policy has two tags, retention tag for Inbox and retention tag for "All other folder in the mailbox".

When a message is moved from Inbox to a user created folder,then on the moved message the "All other folder in the mailbox" tag gets applied.

 Example 6:

Common misconception is that if we create a subfolder under a  folder which is not processed by retention policy ,the subfolder wont be processed Consider a policy has a one  "All other folder in the mailbox" tag with move to archive or delete action. We have disabled the calendar folder from processing ,this can be done by modifying the registry. User who is aware of this ,creates a mail folder called 'PersonalDocs" under the Calendar folder,so that this folder will be not processed by retention policy.

  

 

 When the Default policy processes this mailbox,it does process the "PersonalDocs' folder and moves any emails older than 30 days as per policy,to archive.

 Above also applies if you create a mail folder under Contacts folder (which is not processed by retention policy by default).Also note that above example applies for only Default policy tag.

- Vikas