OneDrive for Business changes that will impact your business!
Microsoft recently announced that from January 2025 OneDrive Data for accounts that have been inactive for 90 days and don’t have a license attached will become inaccessible to end users.
Why does this matter?
Let’s look at this scenario. Your business has recently had a staff member leave. This staff member stored quite a lot of files in their OneDrive which are relevant to your business. You haven’t had time to go back through to see what files you need and have put it on the back burner.
To save on license costs you have removed their Office365 license and de-activated their account (which is best practice). From the time you deactivate the account and remove the license, you have 90 days before the data that was in that users OneDrive will be achieved by Microsoft and become inaccessible to users.
What’s the big deal I hear you say…
Well, once an account has been archived by Microsoft you will need to pay to regain access to any files that were stored in that account.
With the upcoming changes, after an account has been archived to regain access you will need to enable ‘unlicensed account billing’ (aka storage fee). This will cost $0.075 AUD per GB/Month to store unlicensed accounts – remember fee will apply to ALL unlicensed accounts in your tenant.
Then to regain access to the account you will need to pay an additional $0.88 AUD per GB which will provide you with 30 days access to the account. What may not sound like much can soon add up when you consider how much we store in our Office 365 environments.
Why is this happening?
Microsoft has introduced these changes to help reduce security risks associated with unlicensed accounts and to reduce the chance of unnecessary file duplication.
Microsoft are providing sufficient time, and the tools Office 365 admins need to prepare for these upcoming changes so act on it as soon as possible.
What can you do to future proof yourself?
First, you need to look at how your team members are storing their data. Anything that is crucial to the operation of the business should be stored in SharePoint communal files or Teams as opposed to one person’s own OneDrive.
Second, have a procedure in place for how you will handle data that is in a user’s account who leaves your organisation.
Third, act immediately after that person leaves and ensure you have copied/backed up anything that you need.
Further information can be found in the following message from Microsoft
https://admin.microsoft.com/Adminportal/Home?ref=MessageCenter/:/messages/MC836942
And the following article
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/SharePoint/unlicensed-onedrive-accounts
Don’t wait until it’s too late, get in touch and we will help you plan and prepare for these changes.
Get in touch today by calling 1300 730 331
