Microsoft has made some significant updates to its unlicensed OneDrive account storage policies known. Microsoft OneDrive will begin automatically archiving user accounts that have not been licensed for more than ninety-nine days in January 2025.
Reasons for unlicensed OneDrive accounts and their risks
Unlicensed accounts may occur within a tenant for a number of reasons, according to Microsoft. For example, these accounts are kept around because they are protected from deletion by a retention policy. The user may occasionally lose their OneDrive license, for example, if their license is revoked but they aren't removed from Microsoft Entra ID.
Microsoft alerts users to the serious security and compliance issues that unauthorized accounts can pose in business settings. These accounts may also result in file duplication and confusion.
"Unlicensed accounts can be stored in the Microsoft 365 Archive for a monthly price of $0.05/GB, and reactivating accounts from the archive costs $0.60/GB. The business stated on the Microsoft 365 Admin Center that "account reactivation takes up to 24 hours and provides 30 days of access to the account, after which the account returns to an archived state."
How should I be ready for this shift?
To view a list of unauthorized accounts, Microsoft recommends IT administrators to go to the SharePoint admin center > Reports > OneDrive accounts. The quantity of unlicensed accounts as well as the explanations for their unlicense will be displayed on this page. By August 16, 2024, it will be accessible to all commercial customers worldwide.
Microsoft suggests that businesses erase any accounts they don't want to keep and archive billing for unauthorized users. If you would want more information on identifying, keeping an eye on, and handling unlicensed OneDrive accounts, we encourage you to visit our help page.
