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Subscription lifecycle states

  • Article

Applies to: Partner Center | Partner Center for Microsoft Cloud for US Government

Appropriate roles: Admin agent | Billing admin | Helpdesk agent | Sales agent

This document covers the subscription lifecycle states for licensed-based offers for new commerce and legacy.

New commerce

There are six states that a subscription can have in its lifecycle: Active, Canceled, Suspended, Expired, Disabled, and Deleted.

Active

In the Active state:

  • The default (normal) state of a subscription.
  • Partners can access and make changes to subscription properties.
  • Customers can access and use services.
  • Admins can also access services data and properties.
  • Transacting partner continues to be billed.

Canceled

New commerce subscriptions can be canceled within seven days, except where otherwise required by law, of purchase or renewal. After this window passes, subscriptions can no longer be canceled.

Suspended

Partners can suspend a subscription to temporarily make the services not usable to customers.

At the time that the subscription is suspended:

  • If there are next charge instructions, or changes to the billing plan mid term, they're not removed.
  • Any other scheduled changes are removed. If the subscription is reactivated, the partner can recreate the changes.

While the subscription is suspended:

  • Customers can no longer access and use services.
  • Admins can access services data and properties.
  • The transacting partner continues to be billed.
  • Partners can reactivate the subscription before the end of term.
  • Partners can cancel the subscription if they're within the seven-day cancellation window, or reactivate the subscription.
  • If by the term's end the subscription is still suspended, the subscription moves to the expired state.

Expired

30-day expired state follows the end of an Active subscription's term:

  • If autorenew is turned off and the term ends, the previously active subscription expires.
  • The subscription stays in this state for 30 days, and users can access files and services.
  • After 30 days in the expired state, the subscription moves to a 90-day disabled state.
  • Admins can also access data.
  • Transacting partner aren't billed.
  • Can't be reactivated.

Note

This status doesn't appear in the Partner Center Subscription page. To view all subscription states, use the Export all subscriptions download or the Get a customer's subscriptions API response.

Disabled

30-day disabled state follows the end of a Suspended subscription's term:

  • Partners that suspend their subscription leading to the term end find their suspended subscription moved to this 30-day disabled state.
  • After 30 days in the disabled state, the subscription moves to a 90-day disabled state.
  • Users can't access files and services, and only admins can access the data.
  • Transacting partner aren't billed.
  • Can't be reactivated.

90-day disabled state follows the 30-day Expired or a 30-day Disabled states:

  • 90-day disabled state: Data is retained for 90 days after the end of the previous state.
  • Users can't access files and services, and only admins can access the data.
  • Transacting partner aren't billed.
  • Can't be reactivated.

Deleted

After the subscription passes through the 90-day disabled state, it stays deleted, however:

  • The subscription is nonrecoverable.

  • If the partner cancels their subscription, the subscription will first go into the Suspended state for 90 days, and then to Deleted state. Any customer data associated with the subscription is handled per applicable data retention policies.

  • After a subscription is canceled, there's a 90-day grace period in Suspended state where:

    • Customers can continue to access their data.
    • Partner administrators can back up data before it's removed.
    • If the partner purchases the same product/SKU equivalent to the one canceled, customer data and user license assignment settings are automatically restored.
    • If a new purchase is made with a lower number of licenses, customer data and user license assignment settings are still retained. The partner should manage these appropriately.
    • After the 90-day period, these actions are no longer allowed, and data will be removed.

  • Transacting partners aren't billed.

  • Can't be reactivated.

Legacy

There are three states that a legacy subscription can have in its lifecycle: Active, Suspended, and Deleted.

Active

In the Active state:

  • The default (normal) state of a subscription.
  • Partners can access and make changes to subscription properties.
  • Customers can access and use services.
  • Admins can also access services data and properties.
  • Transacting partner continues to be billed.

Suspended

In the Suspended state:

  • Partners suspend a subscription to temporarily make the services not usable to customers.
  • Partners can reactivate the subscription before the end of term.
  • If at the term's end the subscription is still suspended, the subscription is deleted.
  • Partners can only reactivate the subscription.
  • Customers can no longer access and use services.
  • Admins can access services data and properties.
  • Transacting partner aren't billed.

Deleted

After 90 days in the suspended state, the subscription will be deleted and is nonrecoverable.