Microsoft 365 lifecycle management allows for a cleaner environment, a better end-user experience, and increases security. Any Microsoft 365 group/team that has not had any activity within the last 180 days will automatically go into a 30 day expiration process. As long as there is activity within a group/team, the group/team will automatically renew and never hit the 180 day inactivity period. If there is no activity within 180 days or the group/team is not renewed, the group/team will expire in 30 days after the 180 day period. Once the group/team hits the end of the expiration period, all contents within the group/team will be deleted (e.g. mailbox, calendar, Planner, SharePoint Site, team chats, channels. and files).
When will this be implemented?
January 3, 2024
What services/applications are affected by this process?
- Microsoft Group
- Microsoft Team
- SharePoint
- Yammer
What are examples of automatic renewal?
- Teams - visiting a Teams channel
- SharePoint - view, edit, download, move, share or upload a file
- Group - sending an e-mail to a group
- Yammer - view a post
What about the manual renewal process?
If a group/team isn't automatically renewed, the group/team owner receives an e-mail notification to renew the group. There will be a link within the e-mail that will need to be clicked on in order to renew the group and bypass the expiration period. The owner will receive an e-mail notification 30 days before, 15 days before, and 1 day prior to the group/team expiring. Once the group/team enters the 30 day expiration period, the owner will receive an e-mail 1 day after the expiration date that will inform them about the expiration and then the subsequent deletion of the group/team. The group/team is considered to be "soft deleted" and there will be an option to restore the group/team within the expiration e-mail notification. If there is no owner of the group/team, the IT Service Desk will be notified of the group/team expiration and will be in contact with a few of the members of that group/team as long as there are other members to notify them of the pending expiration and/or deletion. After the 30 day soft deletion phase, all items (e.g. files, messages, e-mail, calendars, and tasks) within the group/team are permanently deleted.
What are the scenarios for renewal?
Scenario One - for any group/team created prior to July 7, 2023
When this process is activated any group/team that was created before July 7, 2023 (180 days before January 3, 2024), will automatically be set to a 35 day expiration period unless the group/team is automatically renewed or the owner renews it. If the group/team isn't renewed it will follow this process:
- after 5 days, the group/team owner will receive the first renewal e-mail notification
- If not renewed, 15 days later another e-mail notification is sent out
- If still not renewed, another 15 days later a third e-mail notification is sent out
- If still not renewed, the group/team is soft deleted 1 day later
- 30 days later the group/team is permanently deleted
Scenario Two - any group/team created after July 7, 2023
Any team created after July 7, 2023 will follow the 180 day inactivity timeline. If the group/team isn't automatically renewed or renewed by the owner when the 180 inactivity period is up, it will follow the following process:
- group/team owner receives the first e-mail notification (30 days prior to expiration)
- If not renewed, 15 days later another e-mail notification is sent out
- If still not renewed, another 15 days later a third e-mail notification is sent out
- If still not renewed, the group/team is soft deleted 1 day later
- 30 days later the group/team is permanently deleted
If you have any additional questions or concerns, please contact our IT Service Desk by navigating to https://services.lakeland.edu/TDClient/90/Portal/Home/ in order to submit a request for assistance.