Microsoft 365 Archive is coming to retention policies: compliance up, availability down
This autumn, a Purview retention policy will be able to move SharePoint files into the cold tier (roadmap 561208: preview in September, GA in October). Microsoft promises cost, compliance and search; its own documentation adds that archived content is "no longer directly accessible to anyone" and lists the apps that break: Word and PowerPoint online, the mobile apps, the macOS sync client and Office builds not updated since March. A reactivated file cannot be archived again for 120 days.