What is your plan as Unlicensed Microsoft OneDrive account get archived in 2025
There will be automatic archiving of any OneDrive account that remains unlicensed for over 93 days beginning January 27, 2025. As a result, data will only be accessible through admin tools, and the account will remain inaccessible to both admins and end users until further action is taken. Unlicensed accounts associated with active users—those not assigned a license but still active in the system—will be deleted rather than archived.
How do Unlicensed OneDrive accounts occur?
An account may become unlicensed if the license is not activated or has expired. Unlicensed accounts can occur when new accounts are created and are assigned no licenses. Keeping track of these unlicensed accounts is crucial for assessing their potential risks and planning for either migration or deletion of user accounts.
How to compile a list of unlicensed OneDrive accounts
To spot unlicensed OneDrive accounts in your organization, you can explore how the SharePoint admin center can help. Follow these steps to generate a report:
- First start by logging in with your organization’s credentials into the SharePoint admin center.
- Navigate to Reports and choose User reports.
- Under OneDrive usage, click on Unlicensed users.
- Download the report as a CSV file if needed.
- From January 2025, an interactive UI will be available, allowing you to click on a username for more details.
Assigning a license to an Unlicensed OneDrive Account
- Before Archiving an Unlicensed OneDrive Account
To assign a license to an unlicensed OneDrive account, the user must hold an active Microsoft 365 or Office 365 subscription that includes access to OneDrive. This licensing allows the user to access their OneDrive files with their work account and are enabled to manage their settings and policies.
Licenses can also be assigned in bulk through the following methods:
– User accounts in the Microsoft 365 admin center can be assigned licenses
– Assign licenses to user accounts with PowerShell
- After Archiving an Unlicensed OneDrive Account
Proceed to reactivate an account from its archived state, before assigning a license. If the archived account is linked to a user, an IT administrator can issue a valid license, triggering automatic reactivation of the account within 24 hours. If there is no associated user, for instance, if the identity was deleted, we recommend transferring any necessary content to a SharePoint site or an active, licensed OneDrive account.
How do archiving Unlicensed OneDrive accounts occur
Microsoft 365 is used to archive unlicensed OneDrive accounts if no action is taken. This process allows you to preserve the account and its data for extended periods, ensuring retrieval is possible when needed.
Archiving occurs 93 days after the license is removed or the user is deleted when it comes to newly unlicensed accounts. For example, if a OneDrive account loses its license on August 1, 2025, it will no longer be accessible to users starting November 2, 2025. Between late January and late March 2025, accounts with license removals before October 26, 2024, will be archived.
Let our team independently help plan your OneDrive account usage
Using Microsoft products without the adequate licenses can be costly to your organization. In the case of a OneDrive account archived due to unlicensing, there are implications on user work delivery. This is something you can easily avoid, by talking to our team of experts, we will guide you to get the right licenses to keep your accounts active.
There are charges that come with using a OneDrive account with its related billing cycles and activation charges. Our team of experts can answer all questions you have as an organization.
Our team of Microsoft licensing and cloud experts will help you also explore savings options, with using Microsoft products. There are pre-owned licenses that serve the same purposes as new ones which you can consider as an organization to shore up your revenue reserves when it comes to expenditure on license purchases.