Retention labels are a good way to protect your data in SharePoint and OneDrive. There are several retention labels available for you to apply to your documents to keep them safe from accidental deletion. You can apply these labels to folders or individual files. If you apply a label to a folder, it will automatically apply the label to every file in the folder. You can also remove the label from the folder level, and it will remove the label from every file in that folder structure. However, if a label is applied directly to a file within the folder, that label will remain since it was not applied at the folder level. 

To apply a retention label, select the file or folder, and click on the three dots to see the Details of the file: 

Select 'Choose a label' to apply the appropriate retention label.

These are the available retention labels for all SharePoint sites: 

• 1 Year - Retain + Keep 

• 10 Year - Retain + Keep 

• 3 Year - Retain + Keep 

• 5 Year - Retain + Keep 

• 7 Year - Retain + Keep 

The "Retain + Keep" label means that when applied to a folder/document, it cannot be permanently deleted until after the allotted time is up. For example, if you assign the 1 Year - Retain + Keep policy to a document, from the moment it is assigned, the document can by modified, downloaded, worked on, etc., but it cannot be deleted until after one year is up. ITS recommends applying at least the 1 Year - Retain + Keep policy to all documents and folders. 

Note: Site Members and Owners can delete files from the Recycle Bin and Second-Stage Recycle bin, but if a retention label is applied to a file/folder and is purged from the Recycling Bins, only Site Owners can restore them from the Preservation Hold Library where documents are stored for the remainder of their retention period. For instructions on how to access the Preservation Hold Library in this event, please reach out to ITS. 

Retention Wins Over Deletion: If you have both a retention policy to keep emails and another policy that automatically deletes them, the retention policy takes precedence. This ensures that nothing you expected to be retained is accidentally deleted.

Longest Retention Period Wins: Suppose one policy specifies a retention period of two years, while another policy sets it to five years. In this case, the content will be retained for the longer duration—five years.

Explicit Wins Over Implicit: Explicitly defined policies take precedence over implicit ones. If a user manually applies a retention label or tag, it will override any conflicting automatic deletion settings.