Microsoft 365 (Information) Groups & Teams Expiration
With the increase in usage of Microsoft 365 Teams and Microsoft 365 Groups, administrators and users need a way to clean up unused groups. A Groups and Teams expiration has been implemented so that if unused, they will expire after 1 year of non-use.
An inactive Team or Group will expire after a period of 1 year unless an automatic renewal action is performed.
Teams and Groups which are actively being used will be automatically renewed. Any of the following actions will automatically renew a Team or Group:
- SharePoint (Team Sites) - view, edit, download, move, share, or upload files
- Outlook (Group) - join group, read or write group message from the group, and like a message in Outlook on the web
- Teams - visiting a Teams channel
For Teams, the Team owners will receive notifications to renew through the activity section of the Teams app.
For Groups that were created using Outlook, Planner, SharePoint, or any other app (excluding Teams), owners will receive automated expiration notifications via email starting at 30 days, 15 days, and 1 day prior to the expiration of the Group. Here is a sample of the email message that owners will receive:
From the Renew group notification email, group owners can directly access the group details page in the Access Panel. There, the users can get more information about the group such as its description, when it was last renewed, when it will expire, and the ability to renew the group.
If an owner does not renew the Team or Group before it expires, the Cloud Services team will be able to restore it for up to 30 days after its expiration. Additionally, owners will receive an automated email notification after they allow a group to expire:
If you have additional questions or concerns, please contact the UWM Help Desk at (414) 229-4040, toll free at (877) 381-3459, or submit a help request online at Getting Help - Technology Resources.