SharePoint 2013: Do list item retention policies update items automatically?

Question

I was prompted with list view threshold error when testing a workflow on a SharePoint subsite. I am trying to get a workflow history list of that site to automatically delete items after 30 days by enabling retention in the "Information Management Policy Settings" section of the workflow history list settings. I set the retention stage to move items to the recycle bin after 30 days and set it.

Is there a way to enable this policy to run on all items in the history list, thereby dynamically updating the items and moving them to the recycle bin as necessary?

Answer 1

Yes, there are timer jobs in the farm that process, then delete the items need to be run. By default, they are set to run weekly, they should be modified to run daily.

There are two timer jobs that interact with the Information Management Policies. The first one, titled Information Management Policy, is set by default to run weekly on Friday at 11 pm. It goes through libraries that have policies and figures out if the event portion of the policy is a true condition. If so, it will then set the stage for the second timer job to run against the action portion:

The second timer job is Expiration Policy, and that’s what allows the action portion to run. It’s set by default to run weekly on Saturday at 11 pm:

http://sharepointduffbert.com/2014/07/17/using-the-information-management-policy-specifically-the-retention-policy-in-sharepoint-2010/