Data Protection Issues

Fix Microsoft Purview DLP Detecting Removed Sensitive Information Types

Aamir Naveed Akram Oct 8, 2026 868 views

Question details

A Microsoft Purview Data Loss Prevention policy is still flagging sensitive information types that have already been removed from the policy's rules.

Fix Microsoft Purview DLP Detecting Removed Sensitive Information Types

Product: Microsoft Purview
Device & OS: not provided
Scenario: Modifying an existing DLP policy rule to exclude certain sensitive information types from being detected.
Observed behavior: The policy continues to generate alerts and detect violations for the information types that were removed from the rules.

Before you start

Verify whether the alerts you are seeing in the compliance portal are newly generated detections or historical incidents from before the policy was modified.

Solution 1Recommended

Differentiate Between Historical and New Alerts

Determine if the alerts were generated before or after the policy update, as editing a DLP rule does not automatically delete existing alerts.

Access the Microsoft Purview Compliance Portal

Log into your Microsoft Purview compliance portal using your administrative credentials and navigate to the Data loss prevention section.

Review Alert Timestamps

Open the Alerts tab and check the specific generation time for the violations involving the removed sensitive information types.

Dismiss Historical Violations

If the alerts were generated before the policy change was fully synchronized, manually resolve or dismiss them. Monitor the dashboard for at least 24 hours to ensure no new alerts for those types appear.

Differentiate Between Historical and New Alerts

Policy Sync Time: Keep in mind that DLP policy changes can take up to 24 hours to fully propagate across Exchange, SharePoint, OneDrive, and Teams.

Solution 2

Create a Replacement DLP Policy

If new detections continue after the sync period, recreate the policy to isolate and bypass underlying configuration glitches.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Why are previous DLP alerts still visible after I edited the rules?

Editing a DLP rule modifies future scanning behavior but does not retroactively delete or clear existing alerts. You must manually review and dismiss historical violations in the Microsoft Purview portal.

How long does it take for a modified DLP policy to take effect?

Depending on the workloads selected (like Exchange, SharePoint, or Endpoint DLP), it can take anywhere from 1 hour to 24 hours for policy modifications to fully sync and deploy across your tenant.

Can I simply delete the misfiring DLP policy instead of editing it?

You can, but deleting a policy might remove your access to its historical alert context depending on your retention settings. It is often safer to disable the problematic policy and create a new one to replace it.

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