How to delete specific items from an archive

Problem

How to delete specific items from an Enterprise Vault (EV) archive.

Solution

When a user attempts to delete an item from an archive, EV checks that the following conditions are met:

• The user performing the deletion has Delete permission to the archive
• The Retention Category of the item allows user deletions (i.e., "Prevent user deletion of items with this category" is not checked)
• If the item is subject to "gated deletion" using the Classification feature, then the item's new Retention Category after reclassification must also allow user deletions.
• The archive containing the item allows user deletions (i.e., "Allow deletion of archived items and of this archive" is checked)
• The hardware retention policy, if any, of the storage device where the Vault Store Partition is located allows the deletion of the files that comprise the item
• The Site setting "Users can delete items from their archives" is enabled. (Note: This option is global and affects ALL users in the entire EV site)

The deletion process is the same for any type of archive and can be done by following the steps below:

1. In the Vault administration console, expand Site > Archives > [Archive Type]
2. Select the Archive and go to Properties
3. On the Permissions tab, add the Vault service account or user account that requires delete permissions and save the changes
4. In a browser go to: https://localhost/enterprisevault/
5. Click New Enterprise Vault Search (EVS) then select the archive name displayed list
6. Enter the search criteria to produce the required results
7. Select the item(s) to delete, right-click, and choose Delete

Note: The option to Allow delete operations must be checked on the Features tab of the Search Policy to allow deletion of items from EVS. 

8. This procedure will delete the items from the archive. If the Site setting "Enable recovery of user deleted items" is checked, then this deletion can be reversed for a period of time. If not, then the deletion is permanent.

In the scenario where there are multiple archives that require the same permissions applied,  use an EVPM script (all versions) or the Set-EVArchivePermission cmdlet (12.4 and later) to apply permissions to multiple archives with one command. Refer to Related articles section for more information.