Investigating Notes Folder Archiving in Exchange Online

Investigating Notes Folder Archiving in Exchange Online

Objective

The goal of this article is to investigate why Outlook Notes are being moved to the Online Archive and to verify whether retention policies or archive policies are applied to the Notes folder in Exchange Online.

Background

Outlook Notes are usually not impacted by retention policies or auto-archiving in Exchange Online. However, there were cases where Notes were found in the Online Archive. This article documents the steps and PowerShell commands used to investigate the issue.

Commands Used for Investigation

1. Estimate number of Notes in mailbox

Search-Mailbox -Identity Kroeger@zippel24.com -SearchQuery 'Kind:notes' -EstimateResultOnly

This command estimates the number of Notes in the mailbox without modifying them.

2. Check mailbox folder statistics

Get-MailboxFolderStatistics -Identity Kroeger@zippel24.com | Where-Object {$_.FolderPath -like "*Notes*"}

Finds all folders in the mailbox related to Notes. Example folder path found: /Notizen (localized German folder name for Notes)

3. Check Notes folder in the Online Archive

Get-MailboxFolderStatistics -Archive -Identity "Kroeger@zippel24.com" | Where-Object {$_.FolderPath -like "*Notizen*"}

Confirms whether Notes are present in the Online Archive.

4. Verify mailbox retention policy

Get-Mailbox -Identity Kroeger@zippel24.com | Select-Object DisplayName,RetentionPolicy

Shows the retention policy assigned to the mailbox. In this case, the user has the Default MRM Policy.

5. List all retention tags in the policy

Get-RetentionPolicy -Identity "Default MRM Policy" | Select RetentionPolicyTagLinks

Shows all retention tags linked to the assigned policy.

6. Check retention tags applicable to Notes

Get-RetentionPolicyTag | Where-Object {$_.Type -eq "Personal" -or $_.Type -eq "All"} | Select Name,Type,AgeLimitForRetention,RetentionAction

Checks all retention tags of type Personal or All, including their action and age limit.

7. Check folder-level retention/archive settings for Notes

Get-MailboxFolderStatistics -Identity Kroeger@zippel24.com -FolderScope Notes | Select-Object Name,FolderPath,RetentionPolicy,ArchivePolicy,MessageAgeLimit

Confirms whether the Notes folder has any retention or archive policy applied.

Result:

Name            : Notizen

FolderPath     : /Notizen

RetentionPolicy :

ArchivePolicy  :

MessageAgeLimit :

Interpretation: No retention or archive policies are applied to the Notes folder.

Findings

·        Notes folder is not governed by retention policies in Exchange Online.

·        No server-side archive policy is applied to the Notes folder.

·        Any Notes movement to the Online Archive is likely caused by client-side Outlook AutoArchive or manual actions.

·        Microsoft best practices advise not using Global Admin accounts for everyday tasks, and instead using role-based access with PIM for temporary elevated permissions.

Conclusion

The investigation confirms that Outlook Notes are not automatically archived by Exchange Online policies. If Notes are moving to the Online Archive, it is likely due to local Outlook AutoArchive settings or manual user actions. Administrators should verify client-side settings to prevent unintended archiving.

References

·        Microsoft Docs: Retention Policies in Exchange Online