New-ComplianceSearch

Hi Roger Roger,
it sounds like you want to:

1. Find every Compliance Search and its associated Compliance Search Action that was created by ******@contoso.com
2. Export those objects to CSV (for auditing or records)
3. Delete the search actions first, then delete the searches themselves

Here’s a PowerShell snippet you can use in Security & Compliance PowerShell (you’ll need the appropriate permissions—Discovery Management or equivalent):

1. Grab all searches created by user12. Export searches for your records

$searches = Get-ComplianceSearch | Where-Object { $_.CreatedBy -eq '******@contoso.com' } 

2. Export searches for your records

$searches |
Select-Object Name, Status, CreatedBy, CreatedDate |
  Export-Csv C:\Temp\User1_ComplianceSearches.csv -NoTypeInformation 

3. Grab all search-actions created by 4. Export actions for your records

user1
$actions = Get-ComplianceSearchAction | Where-Object { $_.CreatedBy -eq '******@contoso.com' }

4. Export actions for your records

$actions |
  Select-Object Identity, Action, SearchName, CreatedBy, CreatedDate |
  Export-Csv C:\Temp\User1_SearchActions.csv -NoTypeInformation

5. Remove all actions (must remove actions before deleting searches)

$actions | ForEach-Object {
    Remove-ComplianceSearchAction -Identity $_.Identity -Confirm:$false
}

6. Remove all searches

$searches | ForEach-Object {
    Remove-ComplianceSearch -Identity $_.Name -Confirm:$false
}

A few notes:

• You filter on the CreatedBy property, which shows who ran the New-ComplianceSearch or New-ComplianceSearchAction cmdlet.
• Always remove search actions first; if you delete the search before its action, the action cmdlet may fail.
• Use -Confirm:$false to suppress confirmation prompts in a script, or omit it if you want to approve each deletion manually.

Hope this helps!

Reference list

• New-ComplianceSearch: https://learn.microsoft.com/powershell/module/exchangepowershell/new-compliancesearch?view=exchange-ps
• Get-ComplianceSearch: https://learn.microsoft.com/powershell/module/exchangepowershell/get-compliancesearch?view=exchange-ps
• Remove-ComplianceSearch: https://learn.microsoft.com/powershell/module/exchangepowershell/remove-compliancesearch?view=exchange-ps
• Get-ComplianceSearchAction: https://learn.microsoft.com/powershell/module/exchangepowershell/get-compliancesearchaction?view=exchange-ps
• Remove-ComplianceSearchAction: https://learn.microsoft.com/powershell/module/exchangepowershell/remove-compliancesearchaction?view=exchange-ps Hope this helps. If you have any follow-up questions, please let me know. I would be happy to help. Please do not forget to "Accept Answer" and "up-vote" wherever the information provided helps you, as this can be beneficial to other community members.

Hello Roger Roger,

To retrieve existing Compliance Searches and remove them, you can use the following PowerShell cmdlets:

1. Get-ComplianceSearch – Get-ComplianceSearch (ExchangePowerShell) | Microsoft Learn
2. Remove-ComplianceSearch – Remove-ComplianceSearch (ExchangePowerShell) | Microsoft Learn

To identify related operations (such as exports), you may need to refer to the Microsoft Purview eDiscovery APIs via Microsoft Graph. The documentation below outlines how to connect and query eDiscovery case data, including scenarios that use app-only access:

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/purview/edisc-ref-api-guide#connecting-to-microsoft-graph-api-using-app-only-access

If your requirement is to correlate searches with their associated actions (for example, exports) and perform cleanup, this may require custom scripting that combines these two. This approach might help surface the information you’re looking for.

Hope this helps!

If you found the information above helpful, please Click Yes. This will assist others in the community who encounter a similar issue, enabling them to quickly find the solution and benefit from the guidance provided.

Compliance searches and their purge actions are just compliance search and compliance search action objects. They can be listed and removed with the corresponding Get- and Remove- cmdlets. The context provided covers creating and purging content, but does not include syntax or properties for filtering or deleting the search and action objects themselves, so no supported PowerShell syntax can be given based on this context.

References:

• Search for and delete messages in Exchange Server
• Find and delete email messages in eDiscovery