I am a little dissapointed with Exchange 2010's implementation of archiving. Retention seems to be fine -- label something or all as 'keep 1 year' and discovery is a snap. Archiving is different. I had envisioned a capability to tag a MBX folder as "Archive in 90 days, Retain for 365 days, final action = DELETE". This means you can move email to the archive to reduce active email size, keep it in a similar folder that it was located in when in active mailbox, and once the retention is reached, the email is deleted. Am I missing something? Did MS really design archiving to be 'Archive forever'? No way to delete email once they reach the retention periond? You can set an email to retain 365 days and then delete, but then it has to stay in the main mailbox? How can I move email over 3 months to archive, retain for X days, and then delete? If I have to rely on users to go delete email, then archives will get out of control just like PST files! If I use 'Mark as Past Retention Limit' then I cant move items to archive automatically and not delete?

Hi, Unfortunately, the retention policy cannot apply to the archive mailbox.