Microsoft will hunt down unlicensed OneDrive accounts

Microsoft is closing unused OneDrive accounts that do not have a valid license as of Jan. 27. You can still restore the accounts, but that comes at an additional cost.

Haven’t logged into your OneDrive account in a while? Then it’s urgent time to do so again. Microsoft announced in a blog that it will begin major cleanup on Jan. 27. Accounts that have been archived for at least 93 days and no longer have a valid license will be irrevocably deleted. Microsoft is making this change to improve storage management, security and compliance.

Management of archived accounts

When OneDrive’s license expires, it is automatically archived after 30 days. This happens when a license is revoked or a user is removed from Entra ID. Administrators can still generate reports on these accounts, but accessing the files requires additional steps. Your account is not deleted at this time: that does not happen until after ninety days.

Administrators can retrieve lists of unlicensed accounts in the SharePoint management center and view the reason for their status. To access archived data, organizations must associate an Azure subscription and activate the Microsoft 365 Archive billing.

As of the effective date, administrators have three options:

• Enable Archiving Invoicing: Allows archived files to be managed and edited.
• Delete the account: This is only possible if no retention policy applies to it.
• Reassign the license: This restores access to the account.

Additional costs

Even if the account has not been used for a while, there may still be important files on it. Those will be irretrievably deleted along with the account, if nowhere is backed up. Restoring archived accounts comes with some costs, Microsoft warns in the blog.

Microsoft is charging 0.05 cents per GB per month to keep archived accounts. Reactivating an archived account costs 0.60 cents per GB of storage used. Reactivation takes up to 24 hours and provides 30 days of access. After that, the account will be re-archived if the owner does not log in.

Educational institutions with more than 50 percent educational licenses are excluded from this change. Accounts within these tenants will continue to use shared storage. Microsoft advises organizations to evaluate their storage and license management and take timely action to prevent data loss or unexpected costs.