Hi, Exchange 2003 SP2, I have set Retention Policies set on our mailbox stores for 7 days retention for mail items 30 days for mailboxes. The mail item policy doesn't seem to be working correctly. When i go to a client and try and "Recover Deleted Items" there's nothing there, and when i go to the folder Properties Auto Archive tab it says "The Network Administrator has not set Retention Policies" I'm sure this used to work correctly so i'm not sure what's happened. Any ideas anyone? there's nothing in the Application Log to suggest there are any errors as such. TIA.

So as you said this is was working perfectly Ok earlier, so did you changed any thing on the server?Make sure the exchange is up to date with fixes and patches. Also see if the there is any issue with the AD replication??Have you tried rebooting your server once and then check the policy , if that works?Raj

No nothing's been changed apart from the usual updates etc, i'm not sure how long it hasn't been working for to be honest. i just stumbled across the problem myself. All the AD replication is working correctly as is the Public Folder and normal Exchange permission replication etc. We're due some downtime soon to replace some hardware so it'll be rebooted then but i can't do that just now, i somehow doubt it will help though tbh.

Hi, The Retention Policy which you set on Mailbox Database means the message still save in database for 7 days even after it has been deleted from Deleted Items folder or hard deleted (shift+del) from other folders. Would you please let me know whether a message which you hard deleted in 7 days cannot be found by using Recover Deleted Items method? If I am right, please let me know whether the issue can be reproduced. For example, if you delete a message from Deleted Items folder on the Outlook Online Mode Profile, whether are you able to locate the message through Recover Deleted Items option? For more information:Recovering Deleted Items in Exchange Server 2003 (Part 1)http://www.msexchange.org/tutorials/Recovering-Deleted-Items-Exchange-Server-2003-Part1.html~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Mike Shen TechNet Subscriber Support in forum If you have any feedback on our support, please contact tngfb@microsoft.com ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~