Retention labels vs retention policies
Verdict: Use a retention label to declare records, trigger disposition review, or start retention on an event or on labelling. Use a retention policy for broad location coverage including Teams. On conflict, the longest retention wins.
| Criterion | Retention label | Retention policy |
|---|---|---|
| Applied to | Individual items, manually or automatically | A whole location or workload |
| Records and disposition | Can mark items as records or regulatory records and trigger disposition review | Cannot mark records or trigger disposition review |
| Retention trigger | Can start the period when labelled or on an event | Fixed period from creation or modification |
| User-published locations | Exchange, SharePoint, OneDrive, Microsoft 365 Groups | Also Teams, Viva Engage and Skype |
Rules
- Retention labels uniquely start retention when labelled or on an event, mark items as records, and trigger a disposition review.
- User-published retention labels reach Exchange, SharePoint, OneDrive and Microsoft 365 Groups; Teams, Viva Engage and Skype require retention policies.
- For mixed requirements, combine a retention policy for the baseline with a retention label for the record subset.
- When a policy and a label conflict, the longest retention wins and deletion is suppressed until the longest period ends.
Traps
- A retention policy alone never prompts a disposition review or marks anything as a record; those are label-only capabilities.
- You cannot publish a manual retention label to a Teams channel location; that needs a retention policy.