Updated April 29, 2022: We have updated the rollout timeline below. Thank you for your patience.
We are introducing a new capability to better manage the lifecycle of documents labeled as a record. This new feature enables Records Management administrators to create retention labels that will mark contents in SharePoint and OneDrive as records but will not be “locked” (restricted for edits) until a user manually locks it. This will help customers who use automatic or default labeling of content which includes documents in a draft state which are not yet final and will need to become a locked record until they reach this stage of their lifecycle. This message is associated with Microsoft 365 roadmap ID 88509.
Microsoft 365 compliance center: Information Governance – Allow record label to start “unlocked” for manual records declaration
Organizations sometimes need the ability to declare a file as a record after a period of collaboration. This update allows records managers to apply a record label to content but allow collaboration. Users can then toggle a switch when ready to lock the file and prevent edits.
When this will happen
Public preview: will begin rolling out in mid-March (previously mid-January) and is expected to be complete by mid-May (previously late April).
How this will affect your organization
Records Management administrators can still choose to create record labels that start as a locked record, as has been the case until now. This new configuration of a record label can be set from the retention label creation experience that currently exists in the Records Management solution of the Microsoft 365 compliance center.
Currently, items marked as a record in SharePoint or OneDrive are locked by default and users must unlock them to generate a new version before editing it. With this update, users can assign this new type of record label to content that will classify it with the appropriate retention label but will provide the flexibility to edit the content until they manually lock it (when the document is deemed to be finalized).
This change does not impact the restrictions applied to the file while the record is unlocked, and all behaviors documented as to what actions are allowed or blocked still apply.
What you need to do to prepare
There is nothing you need to do to receive this feature and it will not affect your existing record labels. You may consider updating any training or reference material for your Records Management administrators and evaluate if you would like to use this new capability.
Learn more
Message ID: MC306685
Published: 18 December 2021
Updated: 30 April 2022
