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All data generated by an organization and its staff is crucial, although its relevancy might differ. The Exchange Online Administrators are responsible for managing all the data and often have to take proactive measures to protect every user’s account in case of accidental or intentional deletion. Generally, the primary focus of businesses for data protection using retention is on Emails and Contacts as they are essential for the workflow. But the creation of Office 365 retention policies for Calendar & Tasks is also a must-do action as they also carry important information about the organization.
Assigning useful retention policies in Office 365
Admins secure the data using retention policies,which retains the content at a specific location over cloud rather than directly deleting it. They contain a ‘retention tag,’ which specifies whether it should be moved to the archive and when it should be deleted. It helps to manage the lifecycle of all mailbox items.
Besides mailbox items, several default folders can use retention tags for protection.
Retention Policy can be applied to the following default folders, including Calendar and Tasks.
| Default Folders | Usage |
|---|---|
| Calendar | A calendar folder can save important dates, events, meetings, and appointments. |
| Tasks | When a user creates a task to complete in the future, its description is saved in the Task folder. It is also savable using retention tags. |
| Clutter | A clutter folder can save the less essential emails and declutter the Inbox. |
| Deleted Items | When emails are deleted from the Inbox, they reach the Deleted Items default folder. It will support retention tags also. |
| Drafts | The drafts folder saves the messages the user does not send to other accounts. |
| Journal | This folder saves the user’s actions and is placed in the timeline view in Outlook. |
| Notes | Notes created in Outlook are saved in this folder. They can be protected using retention tags. |
| Outbox | Outbox temporarily contains outgoing messages until they are entirely processed in the Hub Transport Server. |
| Sync Issues | Synchronization logs are present in the Sync Issues folder. |
| Archive | The archive folder is the destination for saving older messages present in Outlook. The retention policies can keep archive mailbox messages. But it will work only in Exchange Online. |
How to create a Retention Tag?
Administrators have the authority to create a particular retention policy using tags as per the type of data you want to protect. Create and assign specific tags to the retention policy where you want your data to be protected if deleted. Find the process mentioned below:
- Open the Microsoft 365 Admin Center. Click on Show all and select Compliance.
- Microsoft Purview compliance portal will open. Expand the Data lifecycle management under Solutions and select Exchange (Legacy).
- Move to the MRM Retention tag and click on the +New tag.
- Type the appropriate Name and Description and move on to Next.
- Check the Automatically to default folder option. Expand the Apply tag to this folder option and select Calendar. Click on Next.
- Define the retention settings, which include the specific Retention Period and the Retention Action to be taken after the period.
- Review all the entries and click on Finish.
How to apply the Retention Tag to the Calendar?
Just like the other Office 365 mailboxes data, you can also protect the Calendar’s data by creating a retention policy for it. Using the specific retention tags you can apply Office 365 retention policies for Calendar by following simple steps mentioned below:
- Go to the Outlook application where you have connected to the same Office 365 account.
- Choose Calendar and right-click on it. Choose to apply the retention tags.
Things to keep in mind
The retention policy in Office 365 protects the selected folder from permanent deletion. It simply works as a recycle bin with a time limitation, known as retention period. There is some necessary information that you need to keep in mind before creating the retention tags:
- In Exchange Online, you can also create retention tags on Calendar and Tasks.
- You can apply retention tags only on default folders. But you can use only limited actions on them, such as:
- Delete and allow recovery
- Permanently delete
- You cannot create a tag to move messages to an archive folder. It would help if you created Default Policy Tag or personal tags to move the messages to the archive mailbox.
- Retention policy tags will not work on Contacts folders.
- You can apply only a single tag to the default folder. For example, no other tag will be applicable if you have added a retention tag on Inbox.
Retention policies are not backups
Microsoft 365 follows a shared tenancy model where the user and platform are responsible for data security. It follows a Software as a Service (SaaS) model where Microsoft and others manage some components.
Office 365 manages the physical infrastructure and maintains mailboxes’ availability, but the security is dependent on the users. So, it would help if you understood that retentions are not backups. Backups take an offline copy while retention saves the data from deletion. If you have not enabled the retention policies in data, then it is unsafe from the abrupt deletion. As the data will be gone permanently if deleted and cannot be recovered in future.
How is third-party software beneficial & necessary?
The risk of data loss is very common among the users of Office 365 due to regular malware attacks, accidental deletion, and virus breaches. Still the Exchange Administrator can save the whole account and keep it safe from many threats. As we have discussed the retention policy within the above article, we know that it does not backup data. The manual process saves only the emails in PST format.
We recommend you use Kernel Export Office 365 to PST software which can export entire Office 365 mailboxes to PST like emails, Contacts, Calendars, Notes, Tasks, and other items.
Conclusion
The above content proves that creating Office 365 retention policies for Calendar and other folders is a smooth process. But you must understand the working aspect of retention policies as they are not equal to backup. Taking a backup of the Office 365 mailbox reduces the chances of data loss and reduces the need for having a robust retention policy.
However, the organization working in Office 365 environment knows that the manual process of data backup is not as effective as automated. That’s why we suggest you employ our advanced Kernel Office 365 Backup and Restore software which helps you take backup of unlimited mailboxes in PST file format.
