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Terminology
Microsoft 365 Group. Groups are the underlying service that drives all collaboration in Microsoft 365 by managing membership and permissions. For example, when you create a new Teams space, the set of users you give access form a Microsoft 365 group. Teams is the resource/interface where your group collaborates. All members of this group automatically have access to all the shared tools within this team. Other Microsoft 365 tools like SharePoint, Outlook, Forms and more utilize groups as well.
Active Group. These actions maintain an active group that automatically renews annually:
- SharePoint – files are viewed, edited, uploaded, downloaded, moved or shared
- Teams – a channel is visited
- Outlook – group is joined/edited, a group message is written, read or liked
- Forms – a form is viewed, created, edited or submitted.
What is MS 365 group expiration enforcement?
When a Teams team or SharePoint site is created, a Microsoft 365 group is also created to manage membership and permissions. Microsoft 365 groups, along with the associated team, SharePoint site, Outlook email account, etc., that have logged no activity for the previous 365 days are deactivated/deleted.
Owners are notified 30 days, 15 days and one day prior to a group's expiration.
After the one-day notification, the group and all associated services like a Teams site, SharePoint site, Outlook email, etc., is deactivated including all content. After deactivation, owners have a 30-day window to request that the group and all associated content be re-activated. However, after the 30-day grace period, deactivation is permanent and all content is deleted.
Active groups/teams/sites are automatically renewed each year. The following actions trigger auto-renew:
- SharePoint – files are viewed, edited, uploaded, downloaded, moved or shared
- Teams – a channel is visited
- Outlook – group is joined/edited, a group message is written, read or liked
- Forms – a form is viewed, created, edited or submitted.
Why have this process?
Inactive groups and their associated services and content pose a security vulnerability. Therefore, we have implemented an annual MS 365 group expiration requirement to control:
- Orphaned groups (no owner)
- Abandoned groups (no recent activity)
- Team sprawl (server junk)
What are owner responsibilities?
- Delete unnecessary teams/sites through settings.
- Check remaining teams/sites to make sure that there is one main owner and at least one backup owner. You can change a group member to an owner through the Add member team setting. If a team's owner has left, and there is no owner, submit the Teams Support service request.
- Active groups/teams/sites renew automatically. You don't need to do anything. However, if you see a team is expiring soon message in your Teams activity feed, decide whether to keep the team or let it go.
- Group owners receive renewal notifications 30 days, 15 days and one day before the group and all associated services like a Teams site, SharePoint site, Outlook email, etc., are deactivated including all content. After deactivation, owners have a 30-day window to request that the group and all associated content be re-activated.
