Sharing Settings displays "The client's sharing settings are pending delete. Follow Practice Activity to check progress"

Issue

When navigating to the Client - Sharing Settings the following error message displays:

• The client's sharing settings are pending delete. Follow Practice Activity to check progress.

Cause

The SharePoint site may have a compliance policy configured to block deletion for a defined retention period. Once the policy restriction expires, the deletion process will complete automatically.

Excluding the site from the compliance policy will not remove an existing preservation hold if one has already been applied. Refer to the Microsoft article Releasing a policy for retention.

Solution

FYI does not have control over Microsoft tenant or SharePoint compliance policies. This issue will need to be reviewed by your IT provider or Microsoft administrator.

• To confirm the compliance policy has been set, by opening SharePoint Admin:
  1. Open the Microsoft 365 Admin Centre at https://admin.cloud.microsoft/.
  2. Click Show All in the bottom left-hand side.
  3. Click SharePoint.
  4. Navigate to Sites - Active Sites.
  5. Select the relevant Collaborate site.
  6. Confirm the banner displays "This site has a compliance policy set to block deletion".
      
• Allow time for the policy restriction to expire, which will allow the deletion process to complete.
   
• Consider excluding the site from future retention policies after discussing the configuration with your IT provider.