Changes Coming to OneDrive

Through late January 2025, you had access to the OneDrive data for anyone who had an M365 license even though that user was deleted or deactivated. The license could have been reissued to someone new, but the OneDrive data from the original user was still there—for a very long time!

The change is to the retention policy, access to the data, and the end of that access. If the license is removed or the user is deleted from Entra ID (formerly Azure AD), the new policy will be in place.

How Long Will the Data be Available?

  • When the user’s license is deactivated/re-assigned, the OneDrive data will follow the retention policy in place under the Admin configuration.
  • The retention policies are usually 30 days.
  • After the retention date expires, the data will be available in the recycle bin for another 93 days.
  • At the end of the 93 days, the data will be deleted by Microsoft. Some sources say ‘may or may not’ be deleted.

What are the options available to keep the OneDrive data in Microsoft?

  • The first option is to re-license the account. This can take up to 24 hours after which the OneDrive data will be available.
  • There is also an option to move to the archive Microsoft services. There is a monthly fee of $0.05/GB/month. But there’s more…
  • If you need to recover data from this archive, there is an additional $0.60/GB for 30 day access. If the data is large, this can really add up.

There has to be another option!

  • Yes! If you are using a third-party backup service, cloud-to-cloud backups of your M365 licenses, the original data is backed up already, so you wouldn’t need the Microsoft Archive services at all.
  • Another option is to move the OneDrive data to a SharePoint site, making it available for future access.

Syscon Managed M365 Licenses

If we manage your Microsoft 365 licenses, we already have backups in place for those accounts. Your OneDrive data has been backed up and can be made available as needed. Even if/when Microsoft deletes the data due to the age of the unlicensed account, we have it for you!

This is very understandable. Imagine a company with high turnover. They could have 100 active users but have 500 unlicensed users. With the prior policy, that’s a lot of free data storage! It’s not unusual for OneDrive accounts to be quite large, so this can really add up. Microsoft has provided paid services if you need to hold on to this data. Great Managed Service providers like Syscon have cloud-to-cloud backups in place so you don’t have to pay for the additional archive services which have specific limits, as well.

If we’re not managing your M365 licenses and you have a lot of data, give us a call and let’s talk! – CMW

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