Problem

A Forum reader recently asked:

"Under GWCheck I can choose to expire and reduce items older than xxx days, or Trash older than xxx days. Does "Items older than" include "Trash older than"? Do expired "Items older than" go to the trash and then succumb to the "Trash older than" expiration cycle? Or are they separate cycles?

And what does "expire" mean - delete and empty from the system, or send to user's trash folder? I ask because GWCheck uses "expire", but the client uses Delete (send to trash) and Empty (delete from mailbox). To achieve a 100-day retention policy, should I set "Items older than" to 90 days and "Trash older than" to 10 days or 100 days? Or should it be done some other way?"

And here's the response from Danita Zanre ...

Solution

"Expire" is a totally different process from what is at the workstation. When you "expire" from GWCheck, the items are totally gone - not put in trash, not recoverable without a database restore, etc. They're just removed.

So, if you truly want ALL messages that are older than "x" to go away, expire is the way to do it - with a heavy hand. The reason files end up in mailboxes older than the expire date is that, for example, the client cleanup doesn't "delete" anything that hasn't been opened. And if you have a shared folder, all users must have opened the file before it it is eligible for cleanup, etc.

A reason you can have BLOBS in the offiles that are older, for example, is the above. Also, any items that are forwarded use the original item, and have to keep it until the forwarded item expires, etc.

So, if you REALLY want to get rid of it all, expire is the way to go.