Working With Retention in SharePoint

In this article, we can create two site collection level retention policies and associate these policies with two site collection content types. Then, review various ways to view retention policies that affect an item or list.

1. Open your site. Hopefully, we have a document library with enough documents
2. Click Safety Reports in the Quick Launch control located in the left-hand column.

Create Retention Policies

1. Open Site Settings by clicking on Site Actions | Site Settings.
2. Click the Site Collection Policies link located in the Site Collection Administration section.
3. Click the Add link.
   
4. Enter the Name, Administrative Description, and Policy Statement shown in Figure 2.
   
5. Select Enable Retention.
6. Click the Add a Retention Stage... link located in the Non-Records section. See Figure 3.
   
7. Set the Time Period to Created Date + 1 year in the Event section.
8. Set the action to Declare a record. See Figure 4.
   
9. Click OK to save the retention stage.
10. Scroll to the bottom of the page and click OK to save the policy.
11. Click the Add link.
    
12. Enter the Name, Administrative Description, and Policy Statement shown in Figure 6.
    
13. Select Enable Retention.
14. Click the Add a Retention Stage... link located in the Non-Records section.
    
15. Set the Time Period to Created Date + 1 year in the Event section.
16. Set the action to Declare a record. See Figure 8.
    
17. Click the OK button to save the retention stage.
18. Select the Define different retention states for a record option and then click the Add a retention stage... link located in the Records section.
    
19. Set the Time Period to Declared Record+7 years in the Event section.
20. Select Permanently Delete as the Action.
    
21. Click OK to save the retention stage.
22. Scroll to the bottom of the page and click the OK button to save the policy.

Assign Retention Policies to Site Collection Content Types

1. Open Site Settings by clicking Site Actions | Site Settings.
2. Click the Site content types link located in the Galleries section.
3. Click on any content type
4. Click the Information Management Policy settings
   
5. Select the Use a Site collection policy option and choose Safety Retention Policy.
   
6. Click OK.
7. Do the same for some of the other content types

Verify the Content is Associated with the Appropriate Retention Policy

Here we will see the Compliance Details dialog, the client application, the List Information Policy page, and the file plan to verify retention status. The steps are as follows.

1. Click on any document library.
2. Hover your mouse over any document link and click the drop-down arrow. Select Compliance Details.
   
3. Review the Retention Stages section in the Compliance Details dialog.
   
4. Click Close.
5. Hover your mouse over the document link and click the drop-down arrow. Select Edit in Microsoft Word.
6. Click the Details button in the message bar to display the Information Management Policy details.
   
7. Click the Close button in the details dialog.
8. Exit Word.
9. Click the Library ribbon bar.
   
10. Click the Library Settings ribbon button.
    
11. Click the Information Management Policy Settings link located in the Permissions and Management section.
    
12. Review the policies associated with the list.
    
13. Click the document library link located in the Quick Launch.
14. Click the Library ribbon tab.
15. Click the Library Settings ribbon button.
16. Click the Generate file plan report link located in the Permissions and Management section.
    
17. Select a location to save the report.
    
18. Click OK to start generating the report.
19. Click Click here to view the report link on the Operation Completed Successfully page.
    
20. Review the file plan.