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How to Publish and Apply Retention Labels in SharePoint (and Avoid the Common Traps)

Publish and Apply Retention Labels in SharePoint Guide Tips

SharePoint has quietly become the backbone of content and records management in many organisations. Documents that used to sit in shared drives, inboxes, or local folders now live in SharePoint sites, Teams channels, and OneDrive.

That’s great for access and collaboration, but it also means you need a clear plan for how long content should be kept, when it can be deleted, and what counts as a record.

That’s exactly where retention labels come in. In Microsoft 365, retention labels let you keep what you need and delete what you don’t at the item level (individual documents, list items, or emails). They can also be used to declare items as records as part of a formal records management program. 

Done well, retention labels help you meet legal and regulatory obligations, reduce risk, and simplify eDiscovery. Done badly, they create confusion, gaps in coverage, or a false sense of compliance.

This guide walks through:

  • What retention labels are in SharePoint
  • How to create and publish them
  • How to apply them manually and automatically
  • The most common mistakes teams make and how to avoid them

Understanding Retention Labels in SharePoint

At a simple level, a retention label tells Microsoft 365 what to do with an item over time:

  • How long to keep it (for example, 7 years)
  • What happens at the end of that period (for example, delete, trigger a review, or do nothing)
  • Whether the item is treated as a record during that time

You create and manage retention labels in the Microsoft Purview portal under Data Lifecycle Management → Retention labels.

Where can retention labels be used?

Retention labels can be applied to:

  • Files in SharePoint and OneDrive
  • Emails in Exchange Online
  • Some other Microsoft 365 locations depending on your configuration 

In this article, we’ll focus on documents and list items in SharePoint.

How retention labels are applied

Retention labels can be:

  • Applied manually by users or site owners
  • Applied automatically based on conditions (for example, keywords, metadata, or sensitive information)
  • Applied by default at the library or folder level

Labels can be bundled into label policies, which determine where they’re available (for example, specific SharePoint sites or all sites). 

Types of retention behaviours

When you configure a label, you typically choose:

  • Retain only: Keep content for a certain period (for example, 7 years) and then leave it in place
  • Retain then delete: Keep content for the period, then automatically delete it
  • Delete only: Keep content as normal, but automatically delete it after a specified time

These settings help align SharePoint with regulatory retention periods and internal policies. 

 

Steps to Publish Retention Labels

In Microsoft 365, making retention labels available to users is a two-step process:

  1. Create the retention label(s)
  2. Publish them using a label policy 

Creating Retention Labels

You create labels centrally in the Microsoft Purview portal. At a high level:

  1. Go to Microsoft Purview → Solutions → Data Lifecycle Management → Retention labels. 
  2. Select Create a label.
  3. Define the basics:
    • Name and description (for admins and optionally for end users)
    • When to start the retention period (for example, from created date, modified date, or a specific event)
  4. Configure retention settings:
    • Retention duration (for example, 3, 5, 7, or 10 years)
    • Whether to retain, delete, or both at the end of the period
    • Whether applying the label marks the item as a record
  5. Save the label.

A couple of practical tips:

  • Be careful with label names: they typically can’t be changed later, and they become user-facing for manual selection. 
  • Align each label with a specific regulatory rule or business requirement, not just a vague “keep for a while”.

Publishing Retention Labels

Creating a label doesn’t make it visible to users yet. To do that, you need to publish the label via a label policy:

  1. In the Purview portal, go to Data Lifecycle Management → Label policies (Publish labels). 
  2. Create a new label policy.
  3. Choose which labels to include in the policy.
  4. Select the locations:
    • Specific SharePoint sites
    • All SharePoint sites
    • OneDrive and/or Exchange if needed
  5. Configure any additional settings (for example, make a label the default for a location).
  6. Name the policy and finish.

It can take some time for labels to appear in SharePoint after publication, so plan ahead when communicating go-live dates to users. 

Applying Retention Labels in SharePoint

Once labels are published, they can be applied manually or automatically.

Applying Manually

Manual labelling is often used when:

  • You want knowledge workers to make decisions (for example, legal vs. general correspondence)
  • You’re starting small or piloting a new retention model

In SharePoint, users can typically:

  • Select a document or list item
  • Use the Details pane or … (More) menu
  • Choose Apply label (or the equivalent option) and pick from the available retention labels

Best practices for manual application:

  • Keep the label list short and meaningful, avoid overwhelming users with dozens of options.
  • Use clear descriptions that tell users when to use a label (“Use this label for final signed contracts that must be kept 7 years after expiry”).
  • Provide examples and screenshots in quick reference guides or intranet pages.

Applying Automatically

Automatic labelling is powerful when you’re dealing with:

  • Large volumes of content
  • Standardised document patterns (for example, invoices, contracts, policies)
  • Sensitive information that must always be retained or protected

In Microsoft 365, you can configure auto-apply retention labels in the Purview portal based on: 

  • Keywords or search queries (for example, “contract”, “NDA”, project codes)
  • SharePoint metadata (for example, Content Type = “Contract”, Department = “HR”)
  • Sensitive information types (for example, credit card numbers, national IDs)
  • Trainable classifiers that identify specific types of content

Examples:

  • Apply a “Client Contract – 7 Years” label to all documents in a “Contracts” library where Content Type = “Contract”.
  • Apply a “Financial Records – 10 Years” label to any document in finance sites containing a recognised account number pattern.

Automatic labelling doesn’t replace governance design, it enforces it. You still need a clear taxonomy, metadata model and site structure for it to work reliably.

Common Mistakes Teams Make When Implementing Retention Labels

Even with the right technical setup, many organisations run into similar issues.

1. Lack of Training and Awareness

If users don’t understand why retention labels matter, they either:

  • Ignore them entirely, or
  • Pick labels at random just to move on

This leads to inconsistent application and audit findings.

How to avoid it:

  • Build short, role-specific training: what labels mean for a project manager vs. a legal counsel vs. HR.
  • Use plain language (avoid only talking about “regulatory requirements”; focus on “protecting the organisation and your team”).
  • Include retention labels in your SharePoint onboarding and project kick-off templates.

You can also point teams to higher-level overviews like the Konnect eMail blog “Email Records Management in Microsoft 365: A Governance Blueprint (Outlook → SharePoint)” to show how labels fit into the bigger governance picture. 

2. Incorrect Configuration of Labels

Technical misconfigurations are surprisingly common, for example:

  • Using the wrong start event (for example, created date instead of last modified date)
  • Setting a retention period that doesn’t match policy (for example, 5 years instead of the required 7)
  • Accidentally configuring a label to delete when it should only retain

These errors create compliance risk and can be hard to unwind later. 

How to avoid it:

  • Always connect each label to a documented retention rule or legal requirement.
  • Have a second pair of eyes (records manager / compliance) review label settings before publishing.
  • Test labels in a non-production tenant or pilot sites before rolling them out widely.

3. Failure to Monitor and Review

Retention labels are not “set and forget”. Regulations, business processes, and site structures evolve. If you never review:

  • Labels become out of date
  • New sites sit unlabelled
  • Auto-apply conditions no longer match how people actually work

Microsoft 365 provides audit and activity logs for retention, which can help you see where labels are used, how often, and on what content types. 

How to avoid it:

  • Schedule a regular review (for example, every 6–12 months) of:
    • Label definitions
    • Label policies and locations
    • Auto-apply rules
  • Run spot checks on key sites (legal, finance, HR, major projects) to confirm that content is labelled as expected.
  • Capture outcomes in a simple retention governance log, auditors love to see that you’re actively managing the model.

4. Ignoring User Feedback

If users say labels are confusing or hard to apply, and that feedback goes nowhere, they will:

  • Stop using them
  • Build their own workarounds (local copies, shadow systems)

You end up with a “paper” retention model that doesn’t match real behaviour.

How to avoid it:

  • Create a simple feedback channel (for example, a Teams channel, form, or Service Desk category) for retention label issues.
  • Use that feedback to:
    • Rename labels where possible (or at least improve user-facing descriptions)
    • Simplify choices in certain sites or departments
    • Update training and FAQs
  • When you make changes based on feedback, communicate back, it builds trust and adoption.

If you’re currently deciding when to use retention policies vs. retention labels for email records, the Konnect eMail article “Retention Policies vs Retention Labels for Email Records in SharePoint: How to Choose” is a good companion to this guide. 

Conclusion

Retention labels in SharePoint are one of the most important tools you have for:

  • Managing the lifecycle of documents and list items
  • Meeting legal and regulatory requirements
  • Reducing risk while avoiding unnecessary “keep everything forever” storage

To get them right, you need more than a technical config:

  • Define and publish labels carefully, using label policies to target the right sites and locations.
  • Apply labels consistently, combining user-driven labelling with well-designed auto-apply rules.
  • Avoid the classic mistakes:
    • Little or no user training
    • Misconfigured label settings
    • No monitoring or periodic review
    • Ignored feedback from people doing the work

If you focus on training, regular reviews, and genuine user engagement, retention labels stop being “just another compliance feature” and become a practical part of everyday document management in SharePoint.

And if you want to close the loop between Outlook and SharePoint so email records are captured where your labels, metadata, and policies can actually do their job, consider exploring Konnect eMail and booking a short demo from the website to see how it can support your Microsoft 365 governance model.

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