How to Get Unlicensed OneDrive User Accounts Report

 Get Unlicensed OneDrive User Accounts Report

Beginning in January 2025, Microsoft will start charging organizations for storage used by unlicensed OneDrive accounts. As a result, admins need to manage these accounts proactively to avoid surprise costs or potential loss of OneDrive data.

In this article, you'll discover how to generate a report of all unlicensed OneDrive user accounts using the SharePoint admin center.

Table of contents

· Unlicensed OneDrive accounts

· Microsoft 365 Archive billing

· Get all unlicensed OneDrive accounts report

· Check default OneDrive retention period

· Change default OneDrive retention period

· Conclusion

Unlicensed OneDrive accounts

An unlicensed OneDrive account occurs when:

· If we remove a user's licenses.

· If we delete the user from our organization.

After deleting a user, we have the option to decide what happens with their OneDrive files, such as granting another user access for 30 days. Even after the user is deleted, any files they shared via OneDrive will still be accessible to others.

Unlicensed OneDrive accounts will be archived 93 days after the license is removed or the user is deleted. For instance, if a OneDrive account's license is removed on August 1, 2025, it will become inaccessible on November 2, 2025.

Starting January 2025, all unlicensed OneDrive accounts will incur storage charges. If not, these accounts will be deleted after 180 days.

Note: These changes do not apply to EDU, GCC, or DoD customers.

To check how much space all licensed and unlicensed users take up in their OneDrive storage, we can  Export OneDrive usage report in Microsoft 365 admin center.

Organizations have several options for managing unlicensed OneDrive users:

• Enable Microsoft 365 Archive billing to keep accounts you want to retain.
• Remove unlicensed accounts in Microsoft 365 that are no longer needed.
• Assign Microsoft 365 licenses to maintain access.
• Convert user mailboxes to shared mailboxes.

Microsoft 365 Archive Billing

If you don’t take action to this, unlicensed OneDrive accounts will be archived, which means Microsoft 365 Archive will start charging you for storage and file reactivation. This option allows you to keep the OneDrive account and its data for future retrieval.

Once the unlicensed accounts are automatically archived, you can still access their files by enabling unlicensed account billing in the Microsoft 365 admin center. When this feature is turned on, it applies to all unlicensed OneDrive accounts in your tenant. You'll incur a charge of $0.05 per GB per month for storing these archived accounts, and a fee of $0.60 per GB for reactivating them. Reactivation takes up to 24 hours and provides access to the account for 30 days before it reverts to an archived state.

To keep costs down, it's a good idea to export all unlicensed OneDrive accounts and decide which ones you want to keep. After that, review the default retention period for deleted OneDrive users and adjust it according to your needs.

Get All Unlicensed OneDrive Accounts Report

To view all the unlicensed OneDrive accounts within your organization, follow these steps:

01: Sign in to SharePoint admin center

02: Click Reports > OneDrive accounts

03: Click Download Report

It lists all the unlicensed OneDrive accounts that have been inactive for over 90 days, due to the following reasons:

Retention Period: The account remains active even though it’s no longer licensed, because a retention period setting is preventing its deletion.

Retention Policy: The account is still active despite being unlicensed because a retention policy in Purview protects it from deletion.

Active User Without License: The account is still active but lacks a license, which might occur if the license is removed but the user is not deleted from Microsoft Entra ID (previously Azure Active Directory).

Duplicate Accounts: The account appears as a duplicate because the same licensed user has multiple OneDrive accounts. This can happen due to reasons like a geographical move, rejoining the organization after leaving, or other factors.

Check Default OneDrive Retention Period

To check how many days the OneDrive retention period is set for deleted users, follow these steps:

1. Sign in to SharePoint admin center
2. Click Settings
3. Click Retention

The default OneDrive retention period for deleted users is 30 days.

Change Default OneDrive Retention Period

To change the days for the default OneDrive retention period for deleted users, follow these steps:

1. Click Settings
2. Click Retention
3. Change the days to retain a deleted user’s OneDrive
4. Click Save

Now we have done the necessary configuration.

Conclusion

You’ve figured out how to obtain a report of unlicensed OneDrive user accounts from the SharePoint admin center. To prevent additional charges, it’s a good idea to export this list and review which accounts you wish to keep. Also, make sure to check the default retention period for deleted OneDrive accounts and adjust it as needed.

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