Share via

Error "You can't edit your files because your license to use OneDrive ended over a couple of months ago"

  • Applies to: OneDrive for work or school

Symptoms

When a user in your organization tries to access their OneDrive for work or school site, they receive the following error message:

You can't edit your files because your license to use OneDrive ended over a couple of months ago.

Therefore, they can't edit or upload files to the site.

Cause

This issue occurs because of enforcement of policy changes for unlicensed OneDrive accounts. These changes went into effect on January 27, 2025.

User accounts are considered to be unlicensed if either of the following conditions is true:

  • The license that's assigned to the user doesn't include OneDrive.
  • The OneDrive license that's assigned to the user is expired.

Resolution

To resolve these issues, follow these steps:

  1. Make sure that the user is assigned a valid license that includes OneDrive:

    1. In the Microsoft 365 admin center, go to Users > Active users.

    2. Select the affected user account.

    3. In the details pane, select Licenses and apps.

    4. Expand the Licenses section, and then check whether a valid license that includes OneDrive is assigned. If it isn't, assign the required license to the user.

      Note

      Changes might take up to 24 hours to take effect if the user account isn't archived, and up to 48 hours to take effect if the account is archived.

  2. If the issue persists, make sure that the user is assigned as the primary site collection administrator of their OneDrive site. Use one of the following methods by using an account that's assigned the SharePoint Administrator role.

    Important

    A user must be the primary site collection administrator of their OneDrive site, not a secondary owner or site collection administrator. If the primary owner is set to someone else, issues might still occur. Don't remove a user as the admin of their own OneDrive site because this action can break many user experiences.

    Method 1: Use the SharePoint admin center

    1. In the SharePoint admin center, select More Features.
    2. Under User Profiles, select Open.
    3. Under People, select Manage User Profiles.
    4. In the Find profiles search box, enter the affected user account, and then select Find.
    5. Right-click the user and select Manage site collection owners.
    6. In the Primary Site Collection Administrator section, check whether the user account is displayed. If it's not, add the user account, and then select OK.

    Method 2: Use SharePoint Online Management Shell

    If you have the SharePoint Online Management Shell installed, follow these steps:

    1. Run the following command to connect to the SharePoint Online Administration Center:

       Connect-SPOService -Url https://<tenant name>-admin.sharepoint.com

      When you're prompted by the Microsoft SharePoint Online Management Shell dialog box, enter the account name and password for a SharePoint administrator account, and then select Sign in.

    2. Run the following command to retrieve the primary site collection administrator of the affected user's OneDrive site:

      (Get-SPOSite -Identity <the user's OneDrive site URL>).Owner

      Typically, the URL for a user's OneDrive site is in the following format:

      https://<tenant name>-my.sharepoint.com/personal/<user principal name>

    3. If the affected user isn't the primary site collection administrator, run the following command to assign the user as the primary site collection administrator:

      Set-SPOUser -Site <the user's OneDrive site URL> -LoginName <user name> -IsSiteCollectionAdmin $true