Introduction #
Your organization may require all mailbox data to be preserved for a specific period. You can use Litigation Hold to meet this requirement. After you place a mailbox on Litigation Hold, mailbox items that are modified or that are permanently deleted are preserved in the Recoverable Items folder for the duration specified by the hold.
We recommend you enable litigation hold on all eligible mailboxes and set the duration to 9999.
License Requirement #
Exchange Online Plan 2 with Archiving Add-on, or
Exchange Online Plan 2, or
Microsoft 365 Business Premium
User Impact #
Low
There will be no noticeable impact on the users by enabling litigation hold on their mailbox.
Parameters #
Duration in days
Desired retention period in days
Set retention period to unlimited – Yes/No
If set to yes, overrides the duration in days parameter and sets retention period to unlimited.
Admin Portal Reference #
- Go to https://outlook.office.com/ecp and sign in using your global administrator account.
- Click Recipients > Mailboxes in the left navigation pane.
- Select the mailbox that you want to place on Litigation Hold, and then click Edit.
- On the mailbox properties page, click Mailbox features.
- Under Litigation hold: Disabled, click Enable to place the mailbox on Litigation Hold.
- On the Litigation hold page, enter the following optional information:
- Litigation hold duration (days) – Use this box to create a time-based hold and specify how long mailbox items are held when the mailbox is placed on Litigation Hold. The duration is calculated from the date a mailbox item is received or created. When the hold duration expires for a specific item, that item will no longer be preserved. If you leave this box blank, items are preserved indefinitely or until the hold is removed. Use days to specify the duration.
- Note – Use this box to inform the user their mailbox is on Litigation Hold. The note will appear on the Account Information page in the user’s mailbox if they’re using Outlook 2010 or later. To access this page, users can click File in Outlook.
- URL – Use this box to direct the user to a website for more information about Litigation Hold. This URL appears on the Account Information page in the user’s mailbox if they are using Outlook 2010 or later. To access this page, users can click File in Outlook.
- Click Save on the Litigation hold page, and then click Save on the mailbox properties page.
If Action is set to Notify #
We report the setting is compliant if the targeted mailbox has litigation hold enabled and the litigation hold duration matches the parameter set in MSPMagic.
We report the setting is non-compliant if the targeted mailbox has litigation hold disabled or the litigation hold duration does not match the parameter set in MSPMagic.
If Action is set to Enforce #
We report the setting is compliant if the targeted mailbox has litigation hold enabled and the litigation hold duration matches the parameter set in MSPMagic.
We report the setting is compliant-fixed if the targeted mailboxes litigation hold was disabled or the litigation hold duration did not match the parameter set in MSPMagic but we enabled the setting and/or change the litigation hold duration to match the parameter in MSPMagic.