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Applying  a Hold in SharePoint 2010

There are a number of ways to apply holds in SharePoint 2010.  We’ll try to address each of them before this series is through, but I’ll show you the ‘standard’ (manual) process here.

(Just a note.  Our friends at Microsoft kinda dropped the ball on applying holds in one respect.  The idea that you would have to apply a hold to each individual record you want to preserve really doesn’t make a lot of sense.  Discovery orders can produce thousands of items that must be preserved.  Sometimes more.  There should really be a mechanism to apply holds to records aggregates – entire libraries, folders, etc. – along with a means to apply them to individual records.)      

To apply a hold, navigate to the record you wish to perserve and open its Compliance Details dialog box. 

In the Compliance Details dialog box click on ‘Add/Remove from hold’ and the ‘Item Hold Status’ window opens.

Select the ‘Add to a hold’ option and use the drop-down selection box to choose the relevant hold to apply to this record.  The ‘Comments’ field is not required, however, I strongly encourage its use.  For litigation purposes, it is a good idea to explain the purpose for the hold and add any other information that might provide value in a legal or regulatory investigation.

Click on ‘Save‘ and the hold will be applied.  The record cannot be deleted and will not be destroyed through its Information Management Policy until the new hold is removed.

It also worth noting that SharePoint 2010 allows you to apply multiple holds to the same record.  Sadly, given our litigious society, multiple holds on the same record is not terribly uncommon.  If a record has multiple holds applied to it, SharePoint 2010 will not allow the record to be destroyed until all the holds are removed.

Creating a Hold

Creating a hold in SharePoint 2010 is a simple process and hasn’t changed much from MOSS 07.  Login to SharePoint as a user with administrator privileges.  Click on Site Actions and select Site Settings.  From the ‘Hold and eDiscovery’ category, click on ‘Holds’. 

Click on ‘Add new item’ and the ‘Holds – New Item’ dialog opens.

Enter a Title for the hold.  (This is the only required field.)  The Title should be brief, but connect the hold to the reason for preserving the records.

The Description should expand on the information provided in the Title.  If your organization is in a particularly litigious industry (and who’s isn’t?), the Description field is a good place to clarify some of the legal issues that might be relevant to the reason for applying the hold. 

For Managed By, enter a user or group responsible for managing the hold.

Click on ‘Save’ and the new hold is created and available to be applied to records.

The next post in this series will describe how holds are applied to records.