create retention policy for teams

Question

create retention policy for teams

Jeremy Addison 0

create retention policy for teams to remove all history upon closing teams

Ryan-N 15,555 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2026-02-24T21:08:05.9866667+00:00

Hi @Jeremy Addison,

I hope everything is going well on your end.

I’m following up on the support thread we've been working through together. I wanted to check in and see if the information I shared in my previous answer helped resolve the issue you were experiencing.

If you're still experiencing any issues or have further questions, please feel free to reach out at any time. I’m always happy to help if you need anything else.

I want to ensure everything is functioning smoothly and that your experience remains seamless.

Thank you again for your collaboration throughout the troubleshooting process. I look forward to hearing from you soon.

Warm regards,

2 answers

Your answer

Ryan-N 15,555 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2026-02-24T21:08:05.9866667+00:00

Hi @Jeremy Addison,

I hope everything is going well on your end.

I’m following up on the support thread we've been working through together. I wanted to check in and see if the information I shared in my previous answer helped resolve the issue you were experiencing.

If you're still experiencing any issues or have further questions, please feel free to reach out at any time. I’m always happy to help if you need anything else.

I want to ensure everything is functioning smoothly and that your experience remains seamless.

Thank you again for your collaboration throughout the troubleshooting process. I look forward to hearing from you soon.

Warm regards,

Answer 1

To create a retention policy for Microsoft Teams that removes all history upon closing Teams, you would typically configure a retention policy that deletes messages after a specified period. However, Microsoft Teams does not support an immediate deletion of history upon closing the application. Instead, you can set up a retention policy that deletes messages after a certain time frame, such as after one day or another specified duration.

Here’s a general approach to creating a retention policy for Teams:

Access the Microsoft Purview compliance portal: Go to the retention policies section.
Create a new retention policy: Follow the prompts to set up a new policy.
Specify the locations: Choose Microsoft Teams as the location for the policy.
Set retention settings: Decide whether to retain content, delete it, or both, and specify the duration for which the content should be retained before deletion.
Review and save the policy: Ensure that all settings are correct and save the policy.

For more detailed instructions, you can refer to the Microsoft documentation on creating and managing retention policies for Teams.

References:

Answer 2

Hi @Jeremy Addison,

Welcome to the Microsoft Q&A forum.

I would like to provide you with the following information:

At the moment, Retention Policies only support deleting Microsoft Teams chat history after a specified period of time, based on the configured settings. Currently, there is no option to automatically delete Teams chat history immediately when Teams is closed or when a user signs out.

If you would like to refer to a method for automatically deleting Teams chat history after a specific period of time, you can follow the steps below:

Step 1: Go to purview.microsoft.com

Step 2: Search for Data lifecycle management in the search bar

Step 3: Select Retention policies > Create new retention policy

Step 4: Skip Policy scope

Step 5: Select Static

Step 6: Select Teams chats

Step 7: Under Retention settings > Retain items for a specific period, choose Custom and

set the retention period to 1 day

User's image

Step 8: Click Next > Finish

I hope the information above is helpful. Please follow the steps and let me know whether the result works as expected. If not, we can continue working together to further troubleshoot this issue.

Thank you for your patience and understanding. If you have any questions or need additional support, please feel free to share them in the comments so I can continue assisting you.

I look forward to continuing our discussion.

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