A Secure Way to Override Retention & Legal Holds in SharePoint and OneDrive

Finally, something compliance and content teams have actually been waiting for.🎉

Being able to securely bypass retention and legal holds with full auditability and workflow controls isn’t just a feature. It’s the flexibility admins have been asking for.

Until now, retention and legal holds in OneDrive and SharePoint often meant a hard stop, even when content clearly needed to go.

Think of outdated Copilot transcripts, sensitive Teams recordings, or content flagged for early removal. You couldn’t act, even if you had a good reason.

𝑻𝒉𝒂𝒕’𝒔 𝒄𝒉𝒂𝒏𝒈𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒉 𝒂 𝒏𝒆𝒘 𝒄𝒂𝒑𝒂𝒃𝒊𝒍𝒊𝒕𝒚 𝒊𝒏 𝑴𝒊𝒄𝒓𝒐𝒔𝒐𝒇𝒕 𝑷𝒖𝒓𝒗𝒊𝒆𝒘 𝑫𝒂𝒕𝒂 𝑳𝒊𝒇𝒆𝒄𝒚𝒄𝒍𝒆 𝑴𝒂𝒏𝒂𝒈𝒆𝒎𝒆𝒏𝒕:

A secure, role-based workflow to delete held content early—without breaking compliance.

Here’s what’s included:
👉 Priority Cleanup policies to override retention/legal hold when truly needed
👉 Simulation mode, audit logs, and disposition reviews for full traceability
👉 Two-admin enforcement to avoid misuse or errors
👉 Managed entirely within the Microsoft Purview portal

📅 Public Preview: Mid–Late September 2025
General Availability: Mid–Late November 2025

If you’re managing Microsoft 365 compliance, retention, or records, you’ll want to prep your teams for this.

This is about responsible deletion: flexibility + accountability, without compromise.