Lost access to files in one drive after account suspended by the university.

Question

Hi, I had been using the OneDrive account provided by the university (Monash University Australia). But they have suspended my account as my admission was expired. They did not give me any notice and all of sudden I lost access to my files.

In my local OneDrive folder, I can see the files (with a brown box icon), but I can not open or download them. Please, help me to recover the files.

Thanks.

Answer 1

Hi

Thank you for your quick response.

According to the following articles:

Step 4 - Forward a former employee's email to another employee or convert to a shared mailbox - Microsoft 365 admin | Microsoft Docs

Delete a user from your organization - Microsoft 365 admin | Microsoft Docs

We noticed the following information:

If your admin removes a user's license but don't delete the account, they can give themselves access to the content in the user's OneDrive. If your admin deletes the user's account, they have 30 days by default to access the former user's OneDrive data, Set the OneDrive retention for deleted users - OneDrive | Microsoft Docs

If your admin don't restore a user account within this time, the deleted users’ OneDrive content is deleted.

By default, the retention period is 30 days. If your admin doesn’t move the files within the retention period after deleting the user, the OneDrive content will be permanently deleted.

So, in this case, to make sure the above information, we suggest you ask your university’s admin to check whether the OneDrive content is deleted by the retention policy or not. If not, you might have a chance to ask your university to help retrieve back your files.

Best regards,

Stacey

Answer 2

Hi Jabbar73

Thank you for posting the thread on our forum.

Based on your description, you can ask for help from your school admin to check your license or assign a new license for ylou.

You also can let them help to back up your files. They should have access to your OneDrive. Provide your email account, see if they are able to access your OneDrive through a link like this:

https://<school domain>-my.sharepoint.com/personal/<Your email>_<School domain>_com/

Hope the suggestion can help you. If there are any misunderstanding, please feel free to post back.

Really appreciate your patience and understanding.

Best regards,

Stacey

Answer 3

Thanks,

I had a discussion with a representative at school. What he told me is that they don't store the data. They only provide accounts. Since my account is suspended, they too don't have access to the account and data. And they can not renew the license as I am no longer a student of that university.

However, I doubt the expertise of that person.

Answer 4

When did you graduate? Usually, files wouldn't be lost over night, that is, you should be given a chance to access the files and download them. After that time has passed, files will be permanently deleted. I seem to recall that 90 days might be a limit with organization accounts, but I am not sure (see https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/commerce/subscriptions/what-if-my-subscription-expires?view=o365-worldwide which applies to business environments).