Microsoft is modifying the usage rules for its OneDrive cloud storage service. Organizations using OneDrive for work or educational purposes will now be required to pay for unlicensed (without an active license) accounts.
Starting January 27, 2025, any user account that remains unlicensed for more than 90 days will be automatically archived, and Microsoft will charge a monthly fee of $0.05 per GB for storage. In this state, data will be inaccessible to both administrators and end users until the organization activates payment for unlicensed accounts and pays a reactivation fee of $0.60 per GB to restore the account. If storage payments cease, the account will be deleted within 93 days.
Microsoft attributes these changes to security measures. The company claims that unlicensed OneDrive accounts can "pose security and compliance risks, as well as cause confusion and file duplication." An unlicensed account is any that is not tied to a Microsoft 365 or Office 365 subscription. An account may lose its license and become unlicensed when the license expires, it is not activated, or it is not assigned. For instance, when a student uses OneDrive for Education, their license can expire, rendering the account unlicensed.
At this point, the organization is expected to delete the account; however, this does not always happen, which can create security risks noted by Microsoft. With this new policy, organizations will be encouraged to stay on top of account management to avoid automatic archiving and associated storage costs.
There is a grace period for accounts that are archived. If an organization reactivates an account within 7 days, they will not incur the $0.60 per GB reactivation fee. Once an account is archived, it can also be deleted without prior reactivation unless any retention policy applies to that account. Alternatively, if the organization wishes to retain the account and is willing to pay the storage fee, it is also acceptable to keep it archived for an extended period.
After January 27, any account that loses its license will have a 90-day period before it is archived. However, for any account that becomes unlicensed before October 26, 2024, archiving can occur anytime from the end of January to the end of March 2025. This means organizations need to sort their unlicensed accounts from now until January. A list of unlicensed accounts should be available in the SharePoint Admin Center starting August 16, 2024.
Source: xda-developers
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