Office 365: How to Set Default Retention Policy for New Users

Like many organizations, you may want to enforce a Default Retention Policy for your users to comply with company policy, government regulations or legal needs. However, many help desks skip over retention policy setup during the new user process. Luckily there is a to set the default retention policy for all new mailboxes.

How to Setup a Default Microsoft Office 365 Retention Policy 

1. Per the Microsoft Exchange documentation to change the properties of an existing retention policy using the Set-RetentionPolicy cmdlet, the following parameter available:

 IsDefault 

2. The documentation states that the IsDefault parameter "is reserved for internal Microsoft use." But documentation aside, IsDefault is available for use and does work for changing your Default Retention Policy.

3. To change your Default Retention Policy for all users, run the following:

 Set-RetentionPolicy -Identity "Default_Policy_to_be_Applied" -IsDefault:$true 

Now, all new users will be created with the Default Retention Policy of your choosing.

Related Posts:
How to Recover Email Retention Policy Settings in Microsoft Office 365

You can always  for assistance with user configuration. Our Managed IT Services can fully support, monitor and manage your Microsoft Office 365 environment. Lewan is a Silver Certified Microsoft Solutions Partner.