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Retention Report

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Retention policies enable you to retain certain types of content in Box for a specified period of time, and remove content from Box that is no longer relevant. A retention report exports details of a particular retention policy, along with a list of all of the files the policy covers. Retention reports do not include files that have already met their retention requirements and been removed.

Each report provides basic information about the retention policy. See Retention Report Information and Data Columns for details and see Retention Report Columns for more information about what's contained in Retention reports..

Retention reports are created as Excel spreadsheet (.xlsx) files. The filenames have the format data_retention_[policy name]_run_on_YYYY-MM-DD__HH-MM-SS-[A|P]M.xlsx and each report run is placed in the root Box Reports folder.

Retention Report Information and Data Columns

Retention reports include details of a particular retention policy, along with a list of all of the files the policy covers.

Retention reports include the following information about the retention policy, in addition to the report's data columns:

Retention Policy Information Description
Policy Name The name of the retention policy.
Policy Status

The status of the retention policy. Values can be:

  • active: The policy is active and retaining the designated files per the policy's configuration.
  • retired: The retention policy is not retaining files.
Policy Type

The content that the policy is applied to, taken from the Apply Policy To setting value. Values can be:

  • Folder(s): When Content within specific folders is selected as the policy setting.
  • Metadata: When Content with specific metadata is selected as the policy setting.
  • All: When All new content is selected as the policy setting.
Policy Time Period

The amount of time content is retained by policy, taken from the Time Period Duration policy setting. The values is the number of days.
Policy Disposition Action

The action taken on files once the policy time period ends, taken from the Disposition Action setting value. Values can be:

  • remove_retention: When None is selected as the policy setting, which means retention will be released on files governed by the policy.
  • permanently_delete: When Permanently delete content is selected as the policy setting, which means files governed by the policy will be irretrievably deleted.
Policy Created Date The date that the retention policy was created.

Retention Report Columns

Data Column Description
Parent Folder Path The path from the root of your Box instance to the folder that contains the file.
Parent Folder Path IDs A number that uniquely identifies the parent folder.
File Name The name given to the file.
File ID A number that uniquely identifies the file.
File Version ID A number that uniquely identifies the version of the file.
Created The date that the file was created.
Uploaded The date that the version of the file was uploaded.
Disposition Date The date on which the policy disposition action will take place for the file.

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