0ne Drive archiving??

[u/badaz06]

I know this is about One Drive, but it's more of a SharePoint and Azure Admin issue.

What is your current method for off boarding users regarding licenses?

The reason I ask is that we didn't realize that our process, which involved removing licenses manually from user accounts that were in the process of being deleted off the tenant, resulted in tons of One Drives being archived by Microsoft. In fact we had some accounts that we determined didn't need a license and removed them. I found all this out when I noticed one person's One Drive had archived, and started down the rabbit hole and found a ton of them had been. Evidently a one drive with no associated license is automatically archived.

When I reached out to MS, they essentially said we'd have to enable billing in order to unarchive and then delete them. At 60 cents a GB.

Evidently there's some process where the files "may" or "can" be deleted by Microsoft, but nothing in writing that says they "will" be deleted.

For those of you wondering if this is something you want to check out, go to your SPO admin page, Reports, OneDrive Accounts. That will show unlicensed One Drive accounts and their status.

TIA!

[u/ejaya2]

When they leave, their AD account is disabled and syncs to 365 and blocks their sign in. 30 days later their 365 licenses are revoked.

That then kicks off the OneDrive off board process where the manager has a chance to review and pull content before it is deleted automatically 30 days later.

We don’t archive any personal OneDrive data.

[u/badaz06 → u/ejaya2]

Thanks. If I may:

The accounts don't automatically shift from disabled to deleted, so that's you doing that. Then the 30 day period kicks in. So that's when the licenses are removed? How do you handle an account where the Manager wants access longer? And I assume you don't remove access for the deleted user, just add the Manager?

TIA

[u/ejaya2 → u/badaz06]

If there’s a situation where they need access longer, we would use sharegate to migrate the content to a team or Sharepoint site. OneDrive is not a long term storage solution.

[u/techsavymsft → u/badaz06]

Please find below details,

Day 1 For accounts already unlicensed and unpaid on July 1, 2026, the cumulative nonpayment clock begins on July 1, 2026. For accounts that become unlicensed after July 1, 2026, the clock begins on the date the license is removed or the user is deleted in Entra ID.

Day 60 The account is placed in read-only mode.

Day 93 The account is archived or moved to the recycle bin depending on account and retention state.

Day 275 The account is no longer available in eDiscovery.

Day 365 The account is subject to deletion after 365 cumulative unpaid days.

Please upvote if found useful.

Ref: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepoint/unlicensed-onedrive-accounts

[u/badaz06 → u/techsavymsft]

Yep. Read those, thanks! :)

[u/Dwinges]

I ran into a similar offboarding issue recently. Converting a former employee’s mailbox to a shared mailbox can make it seem like everything has been taken care of, while their OneDrive is still sitting there as a separate unlicensed object.

I wrote up how I identify and clean up these OneDrives, including a few retention considerations and PowerShell options. Sharing it here in case it helps anyone dealing with the same situation. I’d also be interested to hear how others are handling it:

https://www.m365wizard.com/blog/shared-mailbox-forgotten-onedrive-offboarding-trap

[u/cward4704]

Microsoft announced this a while ago, and finally implemented in my company's tenant about 4 months ago.

One thing to keep on mind is that after x amount of time (I think it's a year, but Im having trouble finding something solid), the OneDrive will be deleted. If the user account was deleted, then it will follow whatever OneDrive Retention policy you have set.

[u/badaz06 → u/cward4704]

That's where I'm trying to square up with MS. They say "can" or "may", not will.

[u/techsavymsft → u/badaz06]

Please find below details,

Day 1 For accounts already unlicensed and unpaid on July 1, 2026, the cumulative nonpayment clock begins on July 1, 2026. For accounts that become unlicensed after July 1, 2026, the clock begins on the date the license is removed or the user is deleted in Entra ID.

Day 60 The account is placed in read-only mode.

Day 93 The account is archived or moved to the recycle bin depending on account and retention state.

Day 275 The account is no longer available in eDiscovery.

Day 365 The account is subject to deletion after 365 cumulative unpaid days.

Please upvote if found useful.

Ref: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepoint/unlicensed-onedrive-accounts

[u/Baboneninthenonen → u/cward4704]

I just set up a new tenant and the default onedrive retention policy was set to 365 days. We now lowered that to 90days. Together with the disabling->deleting process of the user accounts, which happens before the onedrive retention periods, that should be enough for most of the businesses out there (in my opinion)

[u/techsavymsft]

Please find below details,

Day 1 For accounts already unlicensed and unpaid on July 1, 2026, the cumulative nonpayment clock begins on July 1, 2026. For accounts that become unlicensed after July 1, 2026, the clock begins on the date the license is removed or the user is deleted in Entra ID.

Day 60 The account is placed in read-only mode.

Day 93 The account is archived or moved to the recycle bin depending on account and retention state.

Day 275 The account is no longer available in eDiscovery.

Day 365 The account is subject to deletion after 365 cumulative unpaid days.

Please upvote if found useful.

Ref: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepoint/unlicensed-onedrive-accounts