I'm trying to make sense of the retention policy we set up in Microsoft Purview to delete individual Teams chat messages every 30 days. We published this policy about three weeks ago, but the results are kinda mixed. Most sources suggest it takes roughly 10 days for changes to kick in, but for us, it was more like two weeks, and even then, it seems to be working unevenly. For instance, it looks like messages were deleted from the Teams app on our phones and some desktop apps, but oddly enough, my app still shows them.
I've read that these retention policies might only remove messages from the underlying system rather than the apps themselves, which would prevent them from appearing in a Content Search. However, I'm seeing different behavior with our setup. Can someone clarify how this works?
3 Answers
I've set up similar policies before, and I haven't noticed that kind of behavior. Generally, messages can take a bit longer to delete after the cutoff, but as long as the Teams client is connected, older messages should vanish and not stick around in cache. I wonder if there might be a conflicting policy in place. Also, just to clarify, messages get deleted as they hit the 30 days mark, not all at once every 30 days. And don't forget, there's a distinction between messages in Teams channels and direct chats, as those have separate controls.
The Teams desktop client can cache information, and sometimes that cache doesn't sync correctly with the service. If messages are deleted on the service side, you'll just need to wait for the sync. You can reset the app by going into Add/Remove programs, which will clear the cache. But usually, this resolves itself over time. Just keep in mind that it could take anywhere from 30 minutes to even 3 months for everything to settle down.
Ah, I think I may have figured it out! I reset my desktop app and it cleared out all the older messages as expected. It seems like some users might have their cache loaded up more than others, so I guess I'll need to monitor that. If it becomes a repeated issue, does anyone know if it’s possible to set up a script to automatically clear the cache every couple of months?
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