Microsoft Purview | Data Lifecycle Management: Retention based on “last accessed” for OneDrive and SharePoint files

Updated February 4, 2026: We have updated the timeline. Thank you for your patience.

Coming soon for Microsoft Purview | Data Lifecycle Management: Admins will be able to apply a retention policy or retention label in Microsoft OneDrive and Microsoft SharePoint for files that have not been accessed by anyone in your organization for a specified period of time. This message applies to retention for Microsoft 365 file types. We will support other file types (non-Microsoft 365) in a future rollout.

This message is associated with Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 472030.

When this will happen:

Preview: We will begin rolling out late May 2026 (previously late January) and expect to complete by mid-June 2026 (previously late June)

General Availability (Worldwide): We will begin rolling out late June 2026 (previously mid-January 2026) and expect to complete by mid-July 2026 (previously late July)

How this will affect your organization:

This feature will help delete obsolete data, which will improve the quality and relevance of Microsoft 365 Copilot responses.

This feature will be available by default.

After the rollout, admins can use the retention control When items were last accessed when configuring labels and policies.

Retention settings page in Purview with the new “last accessed” option for retention policies:

What you need to do to prepare:

This rollout will happen automatically by the specified date with no admin action required before the rollout. Review your current configuration to determine the impact for your organization. You may want to notify your users about this change and update any relevant documentation.

Before rollout, we will update this post with new documentation.