What happens to the user data if I remove the license from the user ?

Question

Hi guys,

What happens to the 1x1 chats if I remove the O365 licenses from a user? Will MS continue to store the data for these users until I delete the account, or will the data be removed after a certain period?

Thanks

Answer 1

Hi @Malte Schoch

Here are some things you will met in user data when you remove the license from the users:

1)When a license is removed from a user, Exchange online data that is associated with that account is held for 30 days. After the 30-day grace period, the data is deleted and can't be recovered.

2)Files saved in OneDrive for Business aren't deleted unless the user is deleted from the Microsoft 365 admin center or is removed through Active Directory synchronization. For more information, see OneDrive retention and deletion.

3)When the license is removed, the user's mailbox is no longer searchable by using an eDiscovery tool such as Content Search or Advanced eDiscovery. For more information, see "Searching disconnected or de-licensed mailboxes" in Content Search in Microsoft 365.

---

If the response is helpful, please click "Accept Answer" and upvote it.

Note: Please follow the steps in our documentation to enable e-mail notifications if you want to receive the related email notification for this thread.

Answer 2

in my case, user license have been removed more than 30 days (actual around 5 months) and there's no litigation hold enable on the exchange, but when i check it back the mailbox is still not deleted, any answer for this case?

Answer 3

if the license was removed 10 days ago, am I still able to reassign this user's records to a new licensed user?