Delete SharePoint Online sites that have retention policies

Summary

This sample script deletes specified SharePoint Online sites that have a retention policy applied by excluding them from the retention policy, deleting the site and then cleaning up the retention policy exclusions.

Trying to delete a site connected to a M365 group with this script will show the message "This site belongs to a Microsoft 365 group. To delete the site, you must delete the group.". Deletion of M365 group is not handled by this script.

Exchange Online PowerShell module is used for the retention policy exclusion, available on PowerShell Gallery

Example Screenshot

PnP PowerShell

$spoAdminUrl = "<spo admin center url>"
$retentionPolicyName = "<name of the retention policy applied to the sites>"

[string[]]$sitesUrls = @(
    "<spo site to delete url 1>"
    "<spo site to delete url 2>"
    "<spo site to delete url 3>"
)

$ErrorActionPreference = "Stop"

# Connect to Security & Compliance
Connect-IPPSSession

# Connect to SPO Admin Center using PnP PowerShell
Connect-PnPOnline $spoAdminUrl -Interactive

# Exclude the SPO sites from the retention policy.
# This might take a few minutes to take effect. Use Get-RetentionCompliancePolicy -DistributionDetail "Test 2 years" | Select-Object Distribution* to check the distribution status
Write-Host "Excluding sites from retention policy"
Set-RetentionCompliancePolicy -Identity $retentionPolicyName -AddSharePointLocationException $sitesUrls

foreach ($siteUrl in $sitesUrls)
{
    try
    {
        Write-Host "Deleting site $siteUrl"
        Remove-PnPTenantSite -Url $siteUrl -Force
    }
    catch
    {
        Write-Host $_
    }
}

# Clean up the retention policy exclusions by removing the sites just deleted
Write-Host "Cleaning up retention policy exclusions"
Set-RetentionCompliancePolicy -Identity $retentionPolicyName -RemoveSharePointLocationException $sitesUrls

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The way you login into PnP PowerShell has changed please read PnP Management Shell EntraID app is deleted : what should I do ?

Contributors

Author(s)
Giacomo Pozzoni

Disclaimer

THESE SAMPLES ARE PROVIDED AS IS WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING ANY IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, MERCHANTABILITY, OR NON-INFRINGEMENT.