Unlicensed OneDrive user accounts: What you need to know
We are approaching the start date of when the new policy for unlicensed OneDrive user accounts is taking place. We want to give some updates on what to expect, when to expect them, and what actions you can take to ensure a smooth transition. To enhance security, compliance, and storage management this change will help organizations optimize storage, streamline account management, and ensure data security. What is happening? Beginning on Jan 27th, 2025, any OneDrive user accounts that have been unlicensed for longer than 93 days will be inaccessible to admins and end users. Accounts become unlicensed when the admin removes the license, or the user is deleted from Entra ID. How does an account get unlicensed? When an account becomes unlicensed, it means that the user no longer has a valid license associated with their account. This can happen for various reasons, such as the expiration of a subscription, the removal of a license by an admin, or changes in the organization's licensing agreements. These accounts will be automatically archived and will still be viewable via admin tools but will not be accessible until admins take action on them. One example of this is if a OneDrive account became unlicensed on August 1st, 2025, this account will be inaccessible as of Oct 1st, 2025. In some scenarios, users with the necessary permissions can access SharePoint Online and OneDrive for Business resources without a license. Do admins get notified ahead of time when an account is going to be unlicensed? Yes, admins are notified ahead of time when user accounts are about to become unlicensed in OneDrive. Here are the key points: Notification Timeline: Admins receive notifications about unlicensed OneDrive accounts through the Microsoft 365 Message Center. Message Center Updates: For example, a Message Center post (MC836942) informs admins about the changes to storage policies for unlicensed OneDrive accounts. Preparation Steps: Admins are advised to review existing retention policies, move actively used data to licensed accounts or SharePoint sites, and enable billing for archived unlicensed OneDrive accounts. These steps help ensure a smooth transition and minimize disruptions Reports and Monitoring: Admins can generate reports on unlicensed OneDrive accounts using the SharePoint admin center. These reports provide details such as the number of unlicensed accounts, storage used, and reasons for unlicensing) By following these notifications and preparation steps, admins can effectively manage unlicensed OneDrive accounts and ensure compliance with organizational policies. What is the impact for administrators? Beginning on January 27th, 2025, admins will have three options for managing unlicensed OneDrive accounts: Setting up the Archive billing for unlicensed accounts to be able to access and edit the archived files. Delete the unlicensed OneDrive account, if it does not have a retention policy applied to it. Re-license the unlicensed account to maintain access. All purview features work with archived unlicensed OneDrive accounts, including retention policies, legal holds, and eDiscovery search & export. When accounts become unlicensed, they are automatically archived. Admins must enable unlicensed account billing in the Microsoft 365 admin center to access the files. There is a fee of $0.05/GB/Month to store unlicensed accounts in Microsoft 365 Archive, and A fee of $0.60/GB to reactivate accounts stored in Microsoft 365 Archive. When OneDrive accounts become unlicensed, there are some costs to be aware of that were not present previously. Here's what you need to know: Storage Fees: Archived unlicensed accounts now incur a storage fee of $0.05 per GB per month. Reactivation Costs: Reactivating an archived account costs $0.60 per GB, providing 30-day access. Operational Expenses: Managing unlicensed accounts involves additional administrative tasks and costs. Compliance and Security: Properly archiving and billing unlicensed accounts helps mitigate security and compliance risk. Reactivating an account takes up to 24 hours and grants 30-day access, after which the account is archived again. If a OneDrive account is unlicensed for over 93 days with no action, it stays inaccessible unless an Azure subscription is set up and unlicensed billing is enabled in the SharePoint admin center. Note: This will not affect tenants who have not changed the default tenant retention settings. How to get a list of unlicensed accounts Admins can find a list of unlicensed accounts by going to the SharePoint admin center>Reports>OneDrive accounts. This will display how many accounts are unlicensed and the reason why out of the possibilities: Retention period – Account is no longer licensed but is still active because a retention period setting is keeping the account from being deleted. Retention policy – Account is no longer licensed but is still active because a retention policy in Purview is keeping the account from being deleted. Active user with no license – Account is active but is not licensed. This can arise if the license is removed but the user is not removed from Entra IDAAD. Duplicate accounts – Account is a duplicate because a licensed user has multiple OneDrive accounts associated with them. Duplicate accounts (also known as non-primary accounts) may arise if a user has geographic move, or if a user leaves and then rejoins an organization, or it may arise from other factors. How to access inaccessible accounts If admins want to access the data of the now inaccessible unlicensed OneDrive account, they must do the following prerequisites to set up Microsoft 365 Archive : Set up and link Azure subscription in Syntex pay-as-you-go . Must have Global admin or SharePoint admin permissions. Enable Microsoft 365 Archive Unlicensed Account billing (billing is available starting December 2024). If a OneDrive account stays unlicensed for longer than 93 days, the account becomes inaccessible until you fulfill the prerequisites. How does this affect EDU Tenants? These changes don't apply to Education tenants, which have over 50% education licenses. Tenants with fewer than 50% education licenses are considered commercial. Unlicensed OneDrive accounts use pooled storage and can cause security and compliance issues. OneDrive accounts can become unlicensed if the user is deleted from Entra ID but the account is kept due to retention policies, or if the user stays in Entra ID without a valid license. Examples include alumni accounts moving to a free Exchange Online for Alumni license or duplicate accounts. EDU Admin tenants can find unlicensed OneDrive accounts in the SharePoint admin center under Reports > OneDrive accounts. The report shows why accounts are unlicensed, the number of accounts, and storage used. We understand that changes like these can be challenging, and we want to assure you have as many resources as possible. Our goal is to make this transition as smooth as possible, and implementing these updates, we aim to enhance security, compliance, and storage management, ultimately providing a better experience for everyone. Additional resources: Manage unlicensed OneDrive user accounts - SharePoint in Microsoft 365 | Microsoft Learn Quick Start Guide OneDrive Office Hours-Unlicensed OneDrive User Accounts Sync Up Podcast- Unlicensed accounts at 19:56OneDrive Office Hours | March 2025
Join the OneDrive product team live each month on our monthly OneDrive Customer Office Hours to hear what's top of mind, get insights into roadmap updates, and dig into a special topic. Each call includes live Q&A where you'll have a chance to ask the OneDrive product team any question about OneDrive - The home of your files. 😎 Use these links to: Register and join live: aka.ms/OneDriveOfficeHours. Save the calendar invite so you never miss a call-https://aka.ms/OfficeHoursCalendar Each call is recorded and made available on demand shortly after. Our next call is Wednesday, March 12th, 2025, 8:00am - 9:00am PDT. This month's special topic: "Unlicensed User Accounts" with the Trent Green. We have heard your feedback and are doing a follow up session tied to this topic. We will have our product teams on call ready to answer your questions. Our goal is to simplify the way you create and access the files you need, get the information you are looking for, and manage your tasks efficiently. We can't wait to share, listen, and engage - monthly! Anyone can join this one-hour webinar to ask us questions, share feedback, and learn more about the features we’re releasing soon and our roadmap. Note: Our monthly public calls are not an official support tool. To open support tickets, go to see Get support for Microsoft 365; distinct support for educators and education customers is available, too. Stay up to date on Microsoft OneDrive adoption on adoption.microsoft.com. Join our community to catch all news and insights from the OneDrive community blog. And follow us on Twitter: @OneDrive. Thank you for your interest in making your voice heard and taking your knowledge and depth of OneDrive to the next level. You can ask questions and provide feedback in the event Comments below and we will do our best to address what we can during the call. 😎 Register and join live: aka.ms/OneDriveOfficeHours.Improved Filename and External Drive Support for OneDrive Mac
In early 2022, we launched a new Files- On-Demand experience for macOS, enhancing OS integration and support for new features like Known-Folder-Move (KFM). Since then, we’ve continued to refine this experience further, and today we’re excited to share two new features just for our Mac users! Syncing Special Characters OneDrive for Mac users can now create files that contain any of these special characters: "*:<>?/\| We know that this has been a pain point for our Mac user community, and we’re pleased to share that the latest version of OneDrive for Mac now supports them! Such files will sync to the cloud automatically, with no renames required by you. New or existing files with these characters in the filename will automatically sync to the cloud after you receive the Sync App update of 24.206 or later. On a Mac, these characters will appear as you entered them in Finder as well as in other applications. Windows, iOS, Android, and web endpoints will show them in their HTML-encoded form (e.g. * for “*”), so a file named “Hello * World.txt” on your Mac will show up as “Hello * World.txt” on your PC. You can rename these files on another device too, and the special characters will be preserved on your Mac. Syncing to an External (Non-Home) Drive Previously, if you chose a path outside your home volume for OneDrive, your files would reside on your home volume, with the external drive serving as a cache. Now, when setting up OneDrive Sync in the first run experience, you can click ‘Change Location’ and select a non-home volume path, and it will place all your OneDrive content on that drive. Only a small amount of state is kept on your home volume, and this does not include your file data. With this experience, you can finally take full advantage of syncing to any drive you choose without using up space on your home volume! To take advantage of this new experience, there are a few requirements your Mac and external volume must meet: You must be running macOS 15.0 or later. You must be running OneDrive 25.004 or later. You must be in the Insiders ring. Your external volume must meet the following requirements: Non-removable/non-ejectable, as understood by macOS Formatted for APFS Protected by FileVault Not read-only, a network drive, or marked as quarantined by macOS Important: If you are already syncing OneDrive, you must first unlink and relink on the external drive to take advantage of this new experience. Filename FAQ Will any special character sync this way? No. Only the characters identified above will sync as-is. If you have other disallowed characters in filenames, you’ll need to rename them. Note that on a Mac, the “/” character shown in Finder is represented in the file system as “:”, so depending on where you view your file names you may see something different. What happens to filenames that already have an HTML-encoded character of this type in them? We’ll sync them to your Mac in their familiar name. That is, if you have a file named “Hello : World.txt” already syncing, it will sync to your Mac as “Hello : World.txt”. Note that we will only apply a familiar name for the characters listed above. Arbitrary HTML-encoded characters will not be renamed. Decimal-encoded characters will not be renamed. What happens when I search for files containing one of these characters? Since the files on your Mac have these characters in them, you can search for them in Spotlight or similar as you would any other character. On the web, you can also search for these files as they appear on your Mac; the web will discard these characters but should return the correct result. On other endpoints, search behavior may vary. Why Mac only? We are exploring options on other platforms but wanted to prioritize our Mac customers first because these characters are allowed into the native filesystem, whereas on other platforms these characters are not allowed. Will this ever come to Windows? These special characters are illegal in filenames on Windows, so we don’t have plans to bring this to Windows at this time. On Windows, you’ll see them in their HTML-encoded forms in both the file system and in OneDrive’s activity center and other UI. Can an admin opt out of this experience for their users? Admins can opt-out of this feature by setting the “DisableNameMangling” default to YES. Remove this value to opt back in. External Drive FAQ What will the experience be on macOS versions older than 15.0? Users on these versions of macOS will get the previous experience, where the external drive is used as a cache and your files reside on the home volume. How can I know if I’m using the new experience? Your sync root will be on your external drive, not in ~/Library/CloudStorage. Are there behavior differences between the new and old experience? The new external drive sync experience works just like it does if you select your home drive. Why is FileVault a requirement? This is a system requirement of macOS. Are removable drives supported? OneDrive doesn’t support syncing to any drive that macOS thinks can be ejected. About Jack Jack Nichols is a Principal Software Architect on the OneDrive team and owns engineering for OneDrive for macOS.NOW ON DEMAND | OneDrive Office Hours | November 2024 |
Are you ready to connect with OneDrive product makers this month? We’re gearing up for the next call. Join the OneDrive product team live each month on our monthly OneDrive Customer Office Hours to hear what's top of mind, get insights into roadmap updates, and dig into a special topic. Each call includes live Q&A where you'll have a chance to ask the OneDrive product team any question about OneDrive - The home of your files. 😎 Use this Teams link to register and join live: aka.ms/OneDriveOfficeHours. Each call is recorded and made available on demand shortly after. Our next call is Wednesday, November 20th, 2024, 8:00am - 9:00am PDT. This month's special topic: “New OneDrive Sync Updates" with Carter Green, Principal Product Manager on the Microsoft team. Our goal is to simplify the way you create and access the files you need, get the information you are looking for, and manage your tasks efficiently. We can't wait to share, listen, and engage - monthly! Anyone can join this one-hour webinar to ask us questions, share feedback, and learn more about the features we’re releasing soon and our roadmap. Note: Our monthly public calls are not an official support tool. To open support tickets, go to see Get support for Microsoft 365; distinct support for educators and education customers is available, too. Stay up to date on Microsoft OneDrive adoption on adoption.microsoft.com. Join our community to catch all news and insights from the OneDrive community blog. And follow us on Twitter: @OneDrive. Thank you for your interest in making your voice heard and taking your knowledge and depth of OneDrive to the next level. You can ask questions and provide feedback in the event Comments below and we will do our best to address what we can during the call. 😎 Register and join live: aka.ms/OneDriveOfficeHours. See you there, Rob Nunez (Product Marketing Manager – Microsoft)NOW ON DEMAND| OneDrive Office Hours | January 2025
Are you ready to connect with OneDrive product makers this month? We’re gearing up for the next call. Are you ready to connect with OneDrive product makers this month? We’re gearing up for the next call. Join the OneDrive product team live each month on our monthly OneDrive Customer Office Hours to hear what's top of mind, get insights into roadmap updates, and dig into a special topic. Each call includes live Q&A where you'll have a chance to ask the OneDrive product team any question about OneDrive - The home of your files. 😎 Use these links to Register and join live: aka.ms/OneDriveOfficeHours. Save the calendar invite so you never miss a call-https://aka.ms/OfficeHoursCalendar Each call is recorded and made available on demand shortly after. Our next call is Wednesday, January 15th, 2025, 8:00am - 9:00am PDT. This month's special topic: “Microsoft 365 Backup" with Brad Gussin, Principal Product Manager on the Microsoft team. Watch now OnDemand! Our goal is to simplify the way you create and access the files you need, get the information you are looking for, and manage your tasks efficiently. We can't wait to share, listen, and engage - monthly! Anyone can join this one-hour webinar to ask us questions, share feedback, and learn more about the features we’re releasing soon and our roadmap. Note: Our monthly public calls are not an official support tool. To open support tickets, go to see Get support for Microsoft 365; distinct support for educators and education customers is available, too. Stay up to date on Microsoft OneDrive adoption on adoption.microsoft.com. Join our community to catch all news and insights from the OneDrive community blog. And follow us on Twitter: @OneDrive. Thank you for your interest in making your voice heard and taking your knowledge and depth of OneDrive to the next level. You can ask questions and provide feedback in the event Comments below and we will do our best to address what we can during the call. 😎 Register and join live: aka.ms/OneDriveOfficeHours. See you there, Rob Nunez (Product Marketing Manager – Microsoft)The Enhanced "Edit in Grid" Experience for Document Libraries
When managing files in SharePoint Document Libraries, every click counts. Whether you're overseeing a massive project or simply organizing files for your team, efficiency is key. That’s why we’re thrilled to introduce enhancements to Edit in Grid View, bringing speed, simplicity, and the magic of Microsoft Lists to Document Libraries. Let’s explore how these updates make file management more intuitive and effective A Faster, Smoother Experience from the Start Imagine diving into your Document Library faster than ever, making quick edits directly in the grid, and navigating seamlessly through folders—all designed to help you stay organized and keep your team moving forward. One of the first things you’ll notice is the improved loading speed of Document Libraries. No more waiting for your library to catch up with you—now, it’s ready when you are. This enhancement is perfect for teams handling extensive libraries, where every second saved means more time focused on what matters. Enhanced “Edit in Grid” Features for Effortless Management We’ve brought the full power of Microsoft Lists’ editing capabilities to Document Libraries, making bulk edits and updates simpler than ever before. Picture this: you’re prepping documents for an upcoming meeting, and you need to change multiple status fields from “Draft” to “Approved.” Now, you can do this right from the grid, without navigating away or opening additional menus. This means less hassle and more focus on your work. Assign Files in Seconds with Person/Group Editing Collaboration is about making sure the right people have the right information. With the updated grid view, assigning users or groups to a file is as easy as a single click. Keep everyone in the loop without slowing down your workflow. Simplify Image Management Right Inside the Grid Managing visuals has never been easier. Add or update images directly within the grid, just like you would in Microsoft Lists. This feature is a game-changer for teams working with design assets, product documentation, or marketing materials. Navigating through a large Document Library used to mean clicking “Next Page” over and over. Now, you can scroll through your files continuously, just like you would on your favorite social media feed. This infinite scrolling makes finding the right document faster and more intuitive, allowing you to focus on your content, not on navigating menus. Enhanced Grid View Commands—Streamline Your Workflow We've introduced new commands, and navigation features to reduce clicks and keep you in the flow: Create New Files and Folders Without Leaving the Grid-Need a new document or folder? Now, you can create it right in the grid view, so you can keep working without disruption. Open Documents Directly from the Grid-Clickable document titles mean you can open files instantly—no need to switch views or hunt through menus. Navigate Folders Seamlessly-Move in and out of folders directly within the grid, keeping your organizational workflow smooth and uninterrupted. Simplified Editing with Redesigned Tools-Keeping your focus while managing metadata is easier than ever with our redesigned tools: Contextual Properties Pane-The Properties Pane now opens as a dialog box, allowing you to edit details without losing your place in the grid. Convenient Right-Click Options -Right-click any file to access quick actions like Open, Edit, Share, or Delete, making your workflow faster and more intuitive. On-the-Fly Metadata Updates with the Details Pane Access and update metadata without leaving the grid, ensuring all your data is up-to-date and easily accessible. And with grouped views you can organize content by department, project, or content type. Now, you can make inline edits within grouped views, eliminating the need to switch modes and keeping your focus on your data. Easier Rating Management for Enhanced Feedback If you use ratings or likes in your Document Library, you’ll appreciate the updated, user-friendly interface. Quickly rate documents and gather feedback to enhance team collaboration and engagement. Experience the Difference Today—Rolling Out Now! These exciting updates are rolling out across SharePoint Document Libraries, bringing a more consistent and efficient experience to your everyday tasks. If you haven’t seen the changes yet, they’ll be in your hands within the next 90 days. We can’t wait to hear how these features make managing your Document Libraries easier and more efficient. Share your feedback directly in SharePoint and let us know what you think—we’re listening and always looking to improve!Get in Sync with OneDrive's biggest moments of 2024!
Wow, what an incredible year of updates, new innovations, announcements, and of course, time with you all-our valuable customers, partners, and OneDrive users to gain valuable feedback that helps drive our product to be great! I wanted to wrap up the year with highlights of some of our key moments to and share resources for you to indulge in. Reflecting on OneDrive's Recent Innovations As we look back on our journey this year, we’ve introduced many features and updates to the OneDrive experience. From AI-powered capabilities to improved user interfaces, these updates help you work faster and more efficiently. Some of those highlights include: Copilot in OneDrive (Web) One of the exciting features we announced was the general availability of Copilot in OneDrive for web. Copilot is there to help you work faster and smarter by generating summaries for large documents, comparing differences between multiple files, and answering complex questions using stored data. Whether generating ideas for new documents or quickly finding insights, Copilot became a valuable productivity companion. Copilot in OneDrive: Comparing files in a table Faster performance online or offline We've taken enhanced OneDrive's web experience for our users. Now, you can view, edit, and organize your files at lightning speed—even when you're offline. Whether you're browsing through large libraries or filtering documents, everything feels faster, smoother, and more responsive. Colored Folders on Windows We introduced colored folders in Windows File Explorer, bringing a splash of color to file organization. You can customize folders with different colors, making it easier to organize and locate files. Whether managing personal projects or work documents, colored folders added a touch of personalization to file management. Colored folders in Windows File Explorer Sync Admin Report Export Capability (Public Preview) For our IT admins, we rolled out the Sync Admin report export capability in public preview this year. Enabling you to export detailed sync reports, gaining valuable insights into your sync performance and troubleshooting sync-related concerns more effectively. Enhanced OneDrive Search experience We understand that searching for specific files among a mountain of documents can be time consuming. That's why we introduced a suite of enhancements to OneDrive, designed to optimize the search experience. These updates made it quicker and easier for you to locate the files you need, making the whole process faster and more efficient than ever before. OneDrive’s next generation improvements As part of our continued commitment to bring the best OneDrive experience to you all, we introduced new enhancements to work better across M365 apps. The integration of the OneDrive app in Outlook allows you to access your OneDrive files directly from Outlook, making it easier to share and collaborate on documents without leaving your email. And we can’t forget about Media view helping you find and enjoy your media files easier than ever. Whether you're organizing your photos or reviewing videos, this streamlined experience keeps your media content at your fingertips. OneDrive Media view These updates marked significant milestones in our journey to enhance the OneDrive experience. We are looking forward to continuing to innovate and bring you more exciting features and improvements in the near future! OneDrive Event-AI Innovations for a New Era of Work and Home This past October we had our second annual OneDrive event where we unveiled a powerful lineup of new features designed to help you work smarter, stay organized, and relive life’s best moments. OneDrive Event Visual We introduced OneDrive agents custom AI assistants, created by you and grounded in your rich content that exists in your files. We also got a glimpse of OneDrive's improved search capabilities and faster performance, both online and offline. New features and AI-driven features to improve security and management. For our customers who use OneDrive in their personal lives, we shared a look at the new OneDrive mobile app- a vibrant, photos-first experience. With a refreshed UI, users can rediscover, search, and share their favorite photo memories easier than ever. When users back up their phone’s photos to OneDrive, they can enjoy AI-curated memories of meaningful moments. Sit back, grab a snack, and see all these announcements and more! Microsoft OneDrive: AI Innovations for a New Era of Work and Home OneDrive Office Hours One of our favorite monthly occurrences from our product teams is our chance to connect with you directly. Each month we have hosted webinars on multiple special topics across OneDrive and leave time for great conversations and Q&A at the end. Customer Office Hours promo visual If you’ve missed any of this year’s session here is a list of our OnDemand content ready for your viewing pleasure: August-Copilot in OneDrive September-File Picker: seamless collaboration and file management October-Unlicensed OneDrive user accounts November-New Sync updates To stay updated on the latest Office Hours: Follow our blogs on Tech community Download the recurring calendar invite so you don’t miss out! Save the link https://aka.ms/OneDriveOfficeHours to register every month. Sync-Up Podcast Whether you love hearing about deep dive conversations with members of our product teams or seeing behind the scenes for some of our big events, the Sync Up Podcast has got you covered. Sync Up Podcast Episodes: OneDrive's Year in Review & Unlicensed User Changes In Focus—Designing for Copilot Data on the Move—Migrating to OneDrive From Waterfalls to Weekly Releases—Engineering Excellence with Steven Bailey and John Selbie Listen on your favorite platforms: Show: https://aka.ms/SyncUp | Apple Podcasts: https://aka.ms/SyncUp/Apple | Spotify: https://aka.ms/SyncUp/Spotify | RSS: https://aka.ms/SyncUp/RSS Your feedback is valuable to us! Please take our quick survey to suggest topics you'd like to see! A New Year of Innovation As we wrap up this incredible year, it was amazing to reflect on all the progress we've made together. From the introduction of AI-powered features to enhanced user experiences, OneDrive has truly evolved thanks to your feedback and support. Looking ahead, we're excited about the future and the innovations yet to come. We can't wait to continue this journey with you, bringing even more enhancements and features that will make your OneDrive experience better than ever. Thank you for being a part of our community and for your continued support. Here's to another year of growth, innovation, and success 🚀!
