Shared Mailbox | Offboarding user

Question

Hi,

For offboarding user, once we remove license in M365 admin center. What will happen to their email?

What will be the process if we wants to convert to shared mailbox? remove the license and convert OR convert then remove license?

Will the email still in place during these process?

Or is there any best practice for this?

Thanks

Answer 1

Hello Raymond,

I am glad to help you here and answer your concerns.

First "what will happen to emails if you removed licenses for a user in Microsoft 365". In Microsoft 365, if we removed Exchange Online license for a user, the user mailbox would go to "hard-delete" status, and the emails will be still saved in the "hard-delete" mailbox for 30 days, and if we re-assigned the valid Exchange Online license for the user within 30 days, the user mailbox can be recovered after that.

Moreover, if you want to convert a user mailbox to a shared mailbox in Microsoft 365, for the best practice, please refer to Convert a user mailbox to a shared mailbox. Please note, to convert a user mailbox to shared mailbox, the license must be assigned to it, after you successfully convert to shared mailbox, you could remove all associated licenses ( if the mailbox quota not more than 50GB), thanks. And all the emails will be saved in the shared mailbox during the converting process, thanks.

Please feel free to let me know if you have any other concern, thanks.

Best Regards,

Oliver

Answer 2

Hello Raymond,

Please feel free to let me know if you have any other concern, thanks.

Best Regards,

Oliver