There are three types of retention tags:

• Default policy tags   DPTs apply to untagged mailbox items in the entire mailbox. Untagged items are mailbox items that don't already have a retention tag applied, either by inheritance from the folder in which they're located or by the user.
  
  
• Retention policy tags   RPTs apply retention settings to default folders such as the Inbox, Deleted Items, and Sent Items. Mailbox items in a default folder that have an RPT applied inherit the folder's tag. Users can't apply or change an RPT applied to a default folder, but they can apply a different tag to the items in a default folder.
  
  You can create RPTs for the folders shown in the following table.
  
  

  Folders in which you can create RPTs

  Folder name	Details
  Calendar	This default folder is used to store meetings and appointments.
  Conversation History	This folder is created by Microsoft Lync (previously Microsoft Office Communicator). Although not treated as a default folder by Outlook, it's treated as a special folder by Exchange and can have RPTs applied.
  Deleted Items	This default folder is used to store items deleted from other folders in the mailbox. Outlook and Outlook Web App users can manually empty this folder. Users can also configure Outlook to empty the folder upon closing Outlook.
  Drafts	This default folder is used to store draft messages that haven't been sent by the user. Outlook Web App also uses this folder to save messages that were sent by the user but not submitted to the Hub Transport server.
  Inbox	This default folder is used to store messages delivered to a mailbox.
  Journal	This default folder contains actions selected by the user. These actions are automatically recorded by Outlook and placed in a timeline view.
  Junk E-mail	This default folder is used to save messages marked as junk e-mail by the content filter on an Exchange server or by the anti-spam filter in Outlook.
  Notes	This folder contains notes created by users in Outlook. These notes are also visible in Outlook Web App.
  Outbox	This default folder is used to temporarily store messages sent by the user until they're submitted to a Hub Transport server. A copy of sent messages is saved in the Sent Items default folder. Because messages usually remain in this folder for a brief period, it isn't necessary to create an RPT for this folder.
  RSS Feeds	This default folder contains RSS feeds.
  Recoverable Items	This is a hidden folder in the Non-IPM sub-tree. It contains the Deletions, Versions, Purges, and Audits sub-folders. Retention tags for this folder move items from the Recoverable Items folder in the user's primary mailbox to the Recoverable Items folder in the user's archive mailbox. You can assign only the Move To Archive retention action to tags for this folder. To learn more, see Recoverable Items Folder.
  Sent Items	This default folder is used to store messages that have been submitted to a Hub Transport server.
  Sync Issues	This folder contains synchronization logs. To learn more, see Synchronization error folders.
  Tasks	This default folder is used to store tasks.

  Important:
  You can't include more than one RPT for the same default folder type in one retention policy. For example, if a retention policy has an Inbox tag, you can't add another RPT of type Inbox to that retention policy. You can't apply RPTs to the Contacts folder.

• Personal tags   Personal tags are available to Outlook 2010 and Outlook Web App users as part of their retention policy. Users can apply personal tags to folders they create or to individual items, even if those items already have a different tag applied. In Outlook 2010 and Outlook Web App, personal tags with the Move to Archive action appear as Archive Policy, and personal tags with the Delete and Allow Recovery or Permanently Delete actions appear as Retention Policy, as shown in the following figure.
  
  
  
  Messages that have a personal tag applied are always processed based on the personal tag's settings. Depending on the personal tags you create, users can apply a personal tag to a message so that it's moved or deleted sooner or later than the settings specified in the DPT or RPTs applied to that user's mailbox. You can also create personal tags with retention disabled. This allows users to tag items so they're never moved to an archive or never expire.
  
  

  Note:
  Users can apply archive policies to default folders, user-created folders or subfolders, and individual items. Users can apply a retention policy to user-created folders or subfolders and individual items (including subfolders and items in a default folder), but not to default folders.

  Users can also use the Exchange Administration Center (EAC) to select additional personal tags that aren't linked to their retention policy. The selected tags then become available in Outlook 2010 and Outlook Web App. To enable users to select additional tags from the EAC, you must add the MyRetentionPolicies Role to the user's role assignment policy. To learn more about role assignment policies for users, see Understanding Management Role Assignment Policies. If you allow users to select additional personal tags, all personal tags in your Exchange organization become available to them.
  
  

  Note:
  Personal tags are a premium feature. Mailboxes with policies that contain these tags (or as a result of users adding the tags to their mailbox) require an Exchange Enterprise client access license (CAL).

When you enable a retention tag, you must specify a retention age for the tag. This age indicates the number of days to retain a message after it arrives in the user's mailbox.

The retention age for non-recurring items (such as email messages) is calculated differently than items that have an end date or recurring items (such as meetings and tasks). To learn how retention age is calculated for different types of items, see How Retention Age is Calculated.

You can also create retention tags with retention disabled or disable tags after they're created. Because messages that have a disabled tag applied aren't processed by the Managed Folder Assistant, no retention action is taken. As a result, users can use a disabled personal tag as a Never Move tag or a Never Delete tag to override a DPT or RPT that would otherwise apply to the message.

When creating or configuring an RPT, you can select from one of the following actions to specify what retention action should be taken when a mailbox item reaches its retention age:

• Move to Archive   This action moves a message to the user's archive mailbox. Tags that have this action applied are known as archive tags. Messages are moved to a folder in the archive mailbox that has the same name as the source folder in the user's primary mailbox. This allows users to easily locate messages in their archive mailbox. The Move to Archive action is available only for DPTs and personal tags. You can't create an RPT with the Move to Archive action. If the mailbox user doesn't have an archive mailbox, no action is taken. To learn more about archive mailboxes, see In-Place Archiving.
  
  
• Delete and Allow Recovery   This action emulates the behavior when the Deleted Items folder is emptied. Tags that have this action applied are known as deletion tags. When this action occurs, and deleted item retention is configured for the mailbox database or the user, messages move to the Recoverable Items folder. The Recoverable Items folder (previously known as the dumpster) provides the user another chance to recover deleted messages. To do so, the user would access the Recover Deleted Items dialog box in Outlook 2010 or Outlook Web App. To learn more about recoverable items, see Recoverable Items Folder.
  
  
• Permanently Delete   This action permanently deletes a message. Like tags with the Delete and Allow Recovery action, tags that have this action applied are known as deletion tags. When this action is applied to a message, it's purged from the mailbox. This action is like a deleted message being removed from the Recoverable Items folder. After this happens, the user can no longer recover the message.
  
  
• Mark as Past Retention Limit   This action isn't available in the Exchange Administration Center (EAC); you must use the Shell. This action marks a message as expired after it reaches its retention age. In Outlook 2010 or later, and Outlook Web App, expired items are displayed with the notification stating 'This item has expired' and 'This item will expire in 0 days'. In Outlook 2007, items marked as expired are displayed by using strikethrough text.
  
  

  Important:

  If In-Place Hold or litigation hold is enabled for a mailbox user, permanently deleted items are retained in the Recoverable Items store until hold is removed. In-Place eDiscovery will still return permanently deleted messages in search results. To learn more, see In-Place Hold and In-Place eDiscovery. If single item recovery is enabled for the mailbox, permanently deleted items are retained in the Recoverable Items store until the deleted item retention period for the mailbox database (or the deleted item retention period for the mailbox, if specified) is reached. To learn more, see Recoverable Items Folder.

For details about how to create retention tags, see Create a Retention Policy.

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Exchange Setup creates the retention policy Default MRM Policy. When you enable an In-Place Archive for a mailbox, the Default MRM Policy is automatically applied to the mailbox if it doesn't already have a retention policy. If you later apply a retention policy to the mailbox, tags from the Default MRM Policy are no longer available to the mailbox. Existing items that have tags from the Default MRM applied are still processed and moved to the archive or deleted based on the tag.

Note:
In Exchange 2010, the Default MRM Policy was named Default Archive and Retention Policy.

The following table lists the default retention tags linked to the Default MRM Policy.

Retention tags linked to the Default MRM Policy

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A mailbox item moved from one folder to another inherits any tags applied to the folder to which it's moved. If an item is moved to a folder that doesn't have a tag assigned, the DPT is applied to it. If the item has a tag explicitly assigned to it, the tag always takes precedence over any folder-level tags or the default tag.

When a retention tag is removed from the retention policy applied to a mailbox, the tag is no longer available to the user and can't be applied to items in the mailbox.

Existing items that have been stamped with that tag continue to be processed by the Managed Folder Assistant based on those settings and any retention action specified in the tag is applied to those messages.

However, if you delete the tag, the tag definition stored in Active Directory is removed. This causes the Managed Folder Assistant to process all items in a mailbox and restamp the ones that have the removed tag applied. Depending on the number of mailboxes and messages, this process may significantly consume resources on all Mailbox servers that contain mailboxes with retention policies that include the removed tag.

Important:
If a retention tag is removed from a retention policy, any existing mailbox items with the tag applied will continue to expire based on the tag's settings. To prevent the tag's settings from being applied to any items, you should delete the tag. Deleting a tag removes it from any retention policies in which it's included.

If you disable a retention tag, the Managed Folder Assistant ignores items that have that tag applied. Items that have a retention tag for which retention is disabled are either never moved or never deleted, depending on the specified retention action. Because these items are still considered tagged items, the DPT doesn't apply to them. For example, if you want to troubleshoot retention tag settings, you can temporarily disable a retention tag to stop the Managed Folder Assistant from processing messages with that tag.

Note:
The retention period for a disabled retention tag is displayed to the user as Never. If a user tags an item believing it will never be deleted, enabling the tag later may result in unintentional deletion of items the user didn't want to delete. The same is true for tags with the Move to Archive action.

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