Question

A user permanently deleted an email from their Exchange Online mailbox by emptying the Recoverable Items folder (using the Purge action). The mailbox is covered by a Purview retention policy that retains items for 7 years. A compliance investigator now needs to recover this specific message. What is the correct way to retrieve the content?

Accepted Answer

Use an eDiscovery search that targets the mailbox, because purged items covered by a retention policy are preserved in the hidden Recoverable Items subfolders

Answer

Ask the user to restore it from the Deleted Items folder in Outlook

Answer

Disable the retention policy so the purged item is released back to the mailbox

Answer

Submit a Microsoft support ticket to restore the tenant to a point-in-time backup