Microsoft Copilot Right to Erasure: Per-User Conversation Deletion Steps

When a user in your organization requests deletion of their Copilot conversations, you need a clear process to comply with data subject rights under GDPR and similar privacy regulations. Microsoft Copilot stores chat history in the user’s Exchange Online mailbox and Microsoft 365 unified audit log. This article explains how an administrator can delete a specific user’s Copilot conversations without affecting other users. You will learn the exact steps to locate, verify, and remove per-user Copilot conversation data from the Microsoft 365 admin center and Exchange admin center.

Why Copilot Conversations Are Stored in the User’s Mailbox

Copilot chat history is not stored in a separate database. Each Copilot conversation is saved as a hidden item in the user’s Exchange Online mailbox under a system folder named CopilotConversations. This design allows Copilot to provide context across sessions and to comply with Microsoft 365 data lifecycle policies. When a user deletes a conversation from the Copilot interface, the item moves to the Deleted Items folder and remains recoverable until the retention period ends. To fully erase a user’s Copilot conversations under a right to erasure request, an administrator must remove the items from the mailbox permanently. This process uses the same tools as mailbox content search and deletion for other data types.

Data Location and Retention Policies

CopilotConversations folder items are subject to the same retention policies as other mailbox content. If your organization uses a retention policy that preserves deleted items for a set number of days, those items remain in the Recoverable Items folder after the user deletes them. A standard mailbox purge using the Compliance portal will remove items from the primary mailbox but may leave copies in the Recoverable Items folder if the retention policy is still active. For a complete right to erasure, you must either wait for the retention period to expire or use a targeted purge with the New-ComplianceSearchAction -Purge -PurgeType HardDelete PowerShell command.

Steps to Delete a Specific User’s Copilot Conversations

Follow these steps to locate and permanently delete Copilot conversations for a single user. You must have the eDiscovery Manager or Compliance Administrator role assigned in the Microsoft Purview compliance portal.

1. Open the Microsoft Purview compliance portal
   Go to https://compliance.microsoft.com and sign in with your admin credentials. Select Data lifecycle management from the left navigation, then choose Microsoft 365 under the Solutions section.
2. Create a content search for the target user
   Click Content search then select New search. In the search query, set the location to the specific user’s mailbox. Enter the following query: folderid:copilotconversations. This query targets only the CopilotConversations folder in that mailbox.
3. Preview the search results
   After the search completes, click the search name and select Preview results. Verify that the items shown are Copilot conversations from the user. You should see messages with a subject line that starts with “Copilot conversation” or similar. Do not proceed to deletion unless you confirm the correct user and items.
4. Delete the search results
   Return to the content search page. Select the search you created, then click Delete results from the action bar. In the confirmation dialog, choose Permanently delete items. This action removes the items from the user’s mailbox including the Recoverable Items folder.
5. Verify deletion
   Run the same content search again. The results should show zero items. You can also ask the user to open Copilot and check that their conversation history is empty. Note that the user may need to refresh the Copilot pane or sign out and sign back in to see the change.

If Copilot Conversations Still Appear After Deletion

In some cases, the deletion process may not remove all copies of the conversation data. The following issues are the most common causes.

Copilot Conversations Remain in the User’s Deleted Items Folder

If the user deleted conversations themselves before the admin performed the purge, those items may be in the Deleted Items folder rather than the CopilotConversations folder. The content search query folderid:copilotconversations will not find items in Deleted Items. To catch these, modify the search query to: (folderid:copilotconversations OR folderid:deleteditems) AND subject:"Copilot conversation". Run the deletion action again after confirming the results include the correct items.

Retention Policy Prevents Permanent Deletion

A retention label or policy may hold the items even after a purge. Check the mailbox’s retention settings under Exchange admin center > Recipients > Mailboxes > mailbox properties > Mailbox features > Retention policies. If a policy is applied, you must either remove the user from that policy temporarily or use the New-ComplianceSearchAction -Purge -PurgeType HardDelete PowerShell command with the -Force parameter to override the hold. After the hard delete, reapply the retention policy if needed.

Item	Content Search Query	PowerShell Command
Description	Finds Copilot conversations in the user’s mailbox	Forces a hard delete of search results
Use case	Standard deletion for most users	When retention policy blocks purge
Syntax	folderid:copilotconversations	New-ComplianceSearchAction -SearchName "search name" -Purge -PurgeType HardDelete -Force

Copilot Pro vs Copilot for Microsoft 365: Conversation Storage Differences

Item	Copilot Pro	Copilot for Microsoft 365
Conversation storage location	Microsoft account cloud (consumer)	User’s Exchange Online mailbox (tenant)
Admin deletion capability	No admin tool available	Yes, via Purview compliance portal
Retention policy control	Consumer account settings only	Full Microsoft 365 retention policies
Right to erasure method	User deletes via Copilot UI or Microsoft account privacy dashboard	Admin uses content search and purge

For Copilot Pro, the user must delete conversations themselves from the Copilot interface or the Microsoft account privacy dashboard at https://account.microsoft.com/privacy. Administrators cannot perform this action for consumer accounts. For Copilot for Microsoft 365, the admin steps described in this article are the correct method.

You can now delete a specific user’s Copilot conversations using the Microsoft Purview compliance portal content search and purge action. Verify the deletion by running the same search again and confirming zero results. For users who also use Copilot in Teams or other Microsoft 365 apps, note that those conversations are stored in the same CopilotConversations folder, so the deletion covers them as well. To automate this process for multiple users, use the New-ComplianceSearch and New-ComplianceSearchAction PowerShell cmdlets with a loop across user mailboxes.