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Hi, We are running out of E3 licenses which most of our associates use. We also have E1 for some store users. I was wondering for leavers, when account is disabled - if we change the license type from E3 to E1. Would there be any impact? We want to retain the data for next 60 days as per security policy. So can't really remove licenses completely. So what if the license gets changed automatically an accounts gets disabled from E3 to E1. In that way all data like OD, EXO, SPO gets retained? Any leads will be appreciated.
Are you talking about Microsoft 365 E1/E3 licenses or Office 365 E1/E3 licenses?
Sure, you can change the licenses without issues. You can compare the plans whether they still cover the features and storage limits that you need.
See: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/compare-microsoft-365-enterprise-plans
And: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/enterprise/compare-office-365-plans
When it comes to mailboxes, you can also convert it into a Shared Mailbox without the need for a license (as long as it is <50GB) or assign an Exchange Online P1/P2 license.
See: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/exchange/compare-microsoft-exchange-online-plans
Similar plans exist for OneDrive for Business in case you only need to maintain that (or converted the mailbox to a Shared Mailbox).
@Robert Sparnaaij [MVP] Hi, I want to move from M365 E3 to O365 E1 since those are the two subscriptions we have. Would that be a problem if all features match and stay within the storage. Also from data standpoint i think we need to retain only data. In that case we just need to preserve OD, Exchange SPO. Else if gets turned off for a disabled account, should there be any issue (Other than security features).
Also if one has mailbox only, it can be converted to Shared and the license can be reclaimed. So basically without license a mailbox can be preserved if it is within 50GB (Since Shared mailbox is 50GB limit). Is there away for OD too? Without any license, can it be preserved? It still requires SPO license i guess to function or retain the data?
@GoodResource
Yeah, when it is only storage that you are interested in, any license which covers that (or even no license) should be fine.
With that in mind, there is no real difference between the OneDrive for Business and SharePoint Online license, so you would only need 1 of those.
See: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/sharepoint/compare-sharepoint-plans
And: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/onedrive/compare-onedrive-plans?activetab=tab:primaryr2
You could also consider transferring the OneDrive data to a SharePoint site or a Team that is responsible for the data so you won't need any additional licensing either.
If a Shared Mailbox needs more than 50GB of storage, then you can assign it an Exchange Online P2 license to increase the storage limit to 100GB or an Exchange Online P1 license + an Exchange Online Archiving add-on license to have an unlimited amount of archiving space (auto-expanding archive).