Configuring a Data Retention Policy for your Practice OneDrive

Support has now ended for Legacy Collaborate.

To upgrade to New Collaborate, refer to Upgrading to New Collaborate.

FYI's Collaborate feature utilises your practice OneDrive as a secure way to send documents to clients. It is important for your practice to maintain the number of documents shared using this tool, as it is not intended to be a permanent secure vault.

Note: A data retention policy is an optional requirement for New Collaborate. It is a Microsoft feature only available to practices with a Microsoft Business Premium of higher licence.

FYI recommends having your practice's OneDrive administrator, or IT professional create a Data Retention Policy in Microsoft Purview. This will allow your practice to continue sharing via secure links with clients. More information about Data Retention policies can be accessed from the Microsoft article Create and configure retention policies

Please note:

• The policy must be set against the Microsoft 365 account that is selected as the FYI OneDrive Admin.
• The policy could take up to 7 days to take effect.
• The exact setting to which documents are auto-archived will depend on what is right for your practice. Typically, practices set this to be 180 days.
• Deleted files will no longer be available for clients to access using the share links they were previously provided by your practice.
• You will still have your FYI copy of each of these documents, the client’s OneDrive copy is the only item being removed.

The recommended approach is:

1. Access Microsoft Purview using this link.
2. In Microsoft Purview:
   • Select Data lifecycle management > Microsoft 365 > Retention Policies
   • Create a new Retention Policy.
   • Set the name and a description for the policy so that it is clear what the policy is set up to achieve. Click Next.
   • Select Static as the option for Choose the type of retention policy to create. Click Next.
   • For Choose where to apply this policy, set the status for all items except OneDrive accounts to "Off". 
     • Under the Included column, click Edit to specify your practice OneDrive's URL. (To retrieve your practice OneDrive URL, log in Microsoft 365 with your practice OneDrive account).
     • Copy and paste your practice's OneDrive URL into the text box and click the + to add the site to the list.
       
       
       
     • Once added to the list, tick the box next to the site, and click Done.
       
       
     • The Choose where to apply this policy window should look like the following. If so, click Next. 
       
       
       
       
   • On the next screen, select Retain items for a specific period and set the drop-down value to Custom. This allows you to specify your desired retention period.
   • The Start the retention period based on: should be set to "When items were last modified".
   • Ensure that the option for At the end of the retention period is set to Delete Items automatically. 
     
     
     
   • Click Next.
   • Review the settings and click Submit to save the policy.
   • The policy will then be applied to your OneDrive site within 7 days.
     

Once the retention policy is in effect, documents will be automatically deleted from the practice OneDrive after the specified period has elapsed.