= Office 365 User Leaving =

**Summary**: What to do when a user leaves your company in Office 365. \\
**Date**: Around 2018 \\
**Refactor**: 8 March 2025: Checked links and formatting. \\
{{tag>o365}}

What to do when a user leaves? First, if it's an emergency, [[https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/office365/admin/add-users/remove-former-employee?view=o365-worldwide#sign-out-now |reset the password and initiate a logoff]].

= Summary =

So technically, when a user leaves there are two places where their data will be deleted once you revoke the license or delete the user account:

* Exchange Online: Email will be removed after 30 days unless you convert the mailbox to a shared mailbox or if you make the mailbox inactive by setting either a Litigation Hold or an In-Place Hold.
* Onedrive for Business: The data will not be removed if you just revoke the license. If you delete the user account the data will be removed after 30 days.


> You can use Onedrive for Business delegation so the manager of the leaving employee or an administrator gets access to the files so they can save the data to a different location.
>> The question is if that's legally allowed. The answer is it depends. I live in europe and it is not allowed by default. You can however, make it a policy in your company that it is by clearly defining and communicating in what way the company has access and the user can protect it's personal data.

= Useful Links =

* [[https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/office365/admin/add-users/remove-former-employee?view=o365-worldwide|Remove a former employee from Office 365]]
* [[https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/office365/admin/add-users/get-access-to-and-back-up-a-former-user-s-data?view=o365-worldwide|Get access to and back up a former user's data]]
* [[https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/onedrive/retention-and-deletion|OneDrive retention and deletion]]
* [[https://edps.europa.eu/data-protection/data-protection/reference-library/access-ecommunications-data-when-employee-absent_en|EDPS: Access to eCommunications data when an employee is absent]]