M365 SharePoint/Teams - Apply retention labels to items and document libraries
This article will show steps on how to apply retention labels to items in SharePoint as well as how to apply retention labels to entire document libraries in SharePoint.
Apply a retention label to an item
In OneDrive or a SharePoint library, you can label most any file—an Microsoft 365 document created in Word, PowerPoint, Excel, and so on, or even a OneNote file. you can also label non-Office files such as a PDF.)
In a library, you can also label a folder. When you label the folder, that retention label is applied to all the files in that folder.
1. Select the item in the SharePoint library or list:
2. In the upper-right corner, open the details pane:
3. Under Apply label, select Choose a label to open the list of label options:
4. Select the 10 Year Retention - since items were last modified or the 7 Year Retention - since items were last modified label, depending on your retention needs:
Set a default retention label for a SharePoint document library
1. Open the document library in SharePoint
2. Near the top right of the window, select the settings gear and then select Library Settings:
3. Select More library settings on the Library Settings fly-out panel:
4. On the Settings page, under Permissions and Management, select Apply label to items in this list or library:
5. On the Apply Label page, select the drop-down box, then select the 10 Year Retention - since items were last modified or the 7 Year Retention - since items were last modified label, depending on your retention needs and then click Save:
The label you select will be automatically applied to all new files added to the document library beginning now.
6. Optionally, to automatically apply the label to all files currently in the document library, select Apply label to existing items in the library and then click Save:
