Retention policy error: We couldn't find this location (FailedToOpenContainer)

We couldn't find this location is the error the Microsoft Purview portal shows in the details pane of a retention or retention label policy when one of its locations no longer exists. In PowerShell the same problem appears as FailedToOpenContainer in the policy's distribution results. Microsoft's troubleshooting article states that the system requires you to remove the problematic locations as part of your next update to the policy: remove them, then retry the distribution.

Find the failing locations

Connect to Security & Compliance PowerShell (module ExchangeOnlineManagement, Connect-IPPSSession, with a role such as Compliance Administrator) and read the distribution details:

Connect-IPPSSession -UserPrincipalName admin@contoso.com
Get-RetentionCompliancePolicy -Identity "Finance retention" -DistributionDetail |
  Select-Object -ExpandProperty DistributionResults

Each result names the location and the error; the entries with FailedToOpenContainer are the locations to remove.

Remove the locations and redeploy

Use the Remove*Location parameter that matches the workload:

Set-RetentionCompliancePolicy -Identity "Finance retention" -RemoveExchangeLocation "old.user@contoso.com"
Set-RetentionCompliancePolicy -Identity "Finance retention" -RemoveSharePointLocation "https://contoso.sharepoint.com/sites/oldproject"
Set-RetentionCompliancePolicy -Identity "Finance retention" -RetryDistribution

For a deleted Microsoft 365 group, the cmdlet reference identifies the group by its email address and site ID through -DeletedResources (a JSON string):

$deleted = @"
[{ 'EmailAddress': 'USSales@contoso.onmicrosoft.com', 'SiteId': 'SITE_ID' }]
"@
Set-RetentionCompliancePolicy -Identity "Finance retention" -RemoveModernGroupLocation "USSales@contoso.onmicrosoft.com" -DeletedResources $deleted

Read the caution for -DeletedResources in the cmdlet reference first: the same SMTP address can belong to another, active mailbox.

Then check DistributionStatus with Get-RetentionCompliancePolicy -Identity "Finance retention" | Select-Object Name, DistributionStatus until it is Success.

Other distribution errors

The same troubleshooting article lists the other portal messages and their DistributionResults values:

A policy that cannot be deleted is a separate case: policy stuck in PendingDeletion. The retention cmdlets themselves exist only after Connect-IPPSSession; see Get-RetentionCompliancePolicy is not recognized.