Purge emails from a mailbox that are protected by a Organizational Hold

Scenario: You need to remove messages from a mailbox, but the mailbox is protected under an Organizational Hold (but it could also be a LitHold or a InPlaceHold). Since the message is currently protected, it will not purge out of the mailbox until the hold is expired, or ever, depending on what type of hold is on the mailbox.

Solution:

1. Disable the Hold:
You need to remove the mailbox from the Hold. If its an Organizational hold, add them to the exclusion. If its a LitHold or InPlace Hold, disable the hold.

get-mailbox steveman | Select *hold*
get-organizationconfig | Select *Hold*

2. Get the message to the Purges Folder:
Move the email items into the Purges folder. You can do this by any one of the following:

Manual Purging: Deleting the message from the mailbox within the client, then ‘deleting ‘purge’ the message from the Recoverable Deleted Items (Deletions folder).

Search Mailbox – You could use search-mailbox with -deletecontent -force.

New-ComplianceSearch & New-ComplianceSearchAction : You could use a new-compliancesearch with a new-compliancesearchaction -purge -purgetype HardDelete.

MFCMAPI: You could use MFCMAPI to move the message directly to the purges folder.

3. Disable SingleItemRecovery and RetainDeletedItemsFor:
Run the following:
set-mailbox steveman -singleitemrecoveryenabled:$false – retaindeleteditemsfor 0.00:00:00

4. Start the Mailbox Folder Assistant:
start-mailboxfolderassistant steveman

Note: For steps 3 and 4, give time in between the steps for Replication and settings to go into effect.