You can use retention policies to automatically delete e-mail based on how old it is. The setting is put on individual folders.
- Go to webmail (OWA)
- Navigate to the folder you want to set automatic deletion for.
- Right-click the folder and select Assign policy
- You can then select:
- 1 Year Delete (1 year)
- 3 Year Delete (3 year)
- 5 Year Delete (5 year)
- Never delete (Never)
- Use parent folder policy
The rule you set here says that Exchange should delete all email older than 1, 3 or 5 years. Do you have e.g. a folder containing e-mail that is particularly important, you can choose that Exchange should never delete e-mail in that particular folder. If you have a folder for invitations to events like christmas and summer parties and the like, you can set til to automatic deletion for emails older than 1 year.
Use parent folder policy sets the deletion rule from the folder containing the one you have selected.
Note: The retention policies do not immediately delete messages permanently. You can use Recover Deleted Items for 30 days after the message was "deleted".