What Happens to My Data and Access When My Office 365 for Business Subscription Ends?
Hello Everyone! Today we are going to find out what happens to the users’ data when the Office 365 subscription plan expires. So, let’s dive deeper into the topic to understand it.
Well! Microsoft Office 365…... Do not need any introduction nowadays. Most of the businesses and personal users know that it is a well popular online productivity suite. It is reported that Office 365 has 200 million active users till April 2019 and still the more count is adding into it.
Having an MS Office 365 Home / Business /Enterprise plan is just like the best of both worlds. You can easily get things done from virtually anywhere. Even, it allows you to download the desktop version of Office on your machine too. One can take advantage of Office 365 by easily taking either the Annual or Monthly subscription plan. And, if you do not pay for it then, your subscription plan whether it is Home / Business / Enterprise will end automatically. Hence, Your Office 365 subscription expired.
There are multiple reasons due to which the O365 subscription package get expires such as ;
- Organization does not want to renew Microsoft Office 365 package.
- Switched to another business productivity suite such as G Suite.
However, when the subscription get expired, there are following questions in the user’s mind –
- What happens to my data and access when my Office 365 for Business subscription ends?
- What happens to my data and access when my Office 365 for Home subscription ends?
- What happens to my data and access when my Office 365 for Enterprise subscription ends?
- What happens if you don’t renew your Office 365 subscription plan?
The goal of this article is to compile all the information regarding what happens after a O365 plan ends into a single page. So, let’s get started!
Topics To Be Covered
This comprehensive guide explains the following points;
MS Office 365 Home / Business / Enterprise Subscription Expires What Happens After
The customer data and access to Office 365 services go through the different phases before the subscription gets end completely. Make sure, before leaving or switching from Office 365 account – Backup Your Data First before it gets deleted by Microsoft permanently from the data center too.
Moreover, to save a copy of Office 365 mailbox, one can take the help of SysTools Software for Office 365 Backup. An astonishing software whose function is to backup the data of user’s mailbox, admin mailbox and shared mailbox in PST or EML file format. One can also download the Office 365 Contacts & Calendars in PST format on the local machine before Office 365 subscription expires.
For your information, Microsoft is not liable for the data backup, you are the only person who is responsible for it. To get more about it, read the article – Does Microsoft Backup Office 365?
Adding to it, the software support the backup of all the Office 365 subscription plan, including Office 365 Enterprise E1, Office 365 Enterprise E3, Office 365 Enterprise E5, Exchange Online Plan 1, Exchange Online Plan 2, Office 365 Business Premium, Office 365 A1, Office 365 A3, Office 365 A5, Office 365 F1, Office 365 Business Essentials. The software is available for Windows as well as Mac Platform.
If you let your O365 subscription expires, it goes into a sea of multiple stages before it gets finally removed or deleted from the Microsoft database. Within this period, the admin has power to reactivate the plan or backup the data if you finally want to end the plan using software. The following table explains the complete life cycle of what happens to the data and access when Office 365 for Business subscription ends.
| Active State | Expired State | Disabled State | Deprovisioned State |
|---|---|---|---|
| Data can use by everyone | Data can use by everyone | Exclusively admin can access the data | Azure Active Directory is removed or deleted |
| Access to data and other Office 365 applications | Access to data and other Office 365 applications | Users unable to use O365 data and applications too | Users do not have access to Office 365, files, or applications |
| Admins have normal access to Office 365, data, and Office applications | Admins can access the admin center | Admins have access to Admin center, but unable to assign license to users | Admins have power to use the admin center to buy & handle the other subscriptions as per the requirement |
| Billing or Global admins have power to reactivate the subscription Via. Admin center | Billing or Global admins have power to reactivate the subscription Via. Admin center |
Explanation of Microsoft Office 365 Subscription Expires Stages
Typically, three stages start after the plan gets expired. All the stages have different time period and constraints. These stages let you know what happened to the data just after the cancellation of Office 365 subscription plan.
- Expired
- Disabled
- Deprovisioned
Expired:- The state whose name is Expired is generally run lasts for 30 days. The time period vary according to volume and country. Most of the subscription plans processed through Microsoft Open have 30 days time period of Expired stage. Although, for volume licensing products, except for Microsoft Open, the time period extends up to 90 days.
During this period, users can normally use the O365 portal and other applications too. Here, admins can reactivate the plan to continue the package. Else backup the data if you are planning to end the Office 365 subscription plan.
Disabled:- The next stage after the Expired is Disabled state, which is of 90 days for every subscription plan. Bur, for volume licensing products, the state ends after 30 days. Here, you have limited access. Users cannot login or access any service of Office 365. Everything goes into read-only mode. Adding to it, it also shows the notification – Unlicensed Product. However, one can access as admin and reach to admin center, but could not assign licenses to users. All-in-all, the data is only available to admins only.
Deprovisioned:- If the admin does not reactivate the Office 365 subscription plan in above two stages, then the subscription is Deprovisioned. No one has right to access the account and customer data. All the data gets deleted or unable to recover it. Still, global or billing admin can access the admin center and buy or manage the subscriptions.
What Happens If I Cancel Office 365 Subscription? Find Out
In such a situation if the user owns cancel the subscription prior to its term and date, the account directly moves into the disabled state. Hence, it is highly recommended to backup data of your organization before canceling the subscription plan. Because any customer data will be deleted permanently after the 180 days after the plan cancellation.
Bringing It All Together
Here, we have covered the most searched query, which is – What happens to my data and access when my Office 365 for Business Subscription Ends. It is suggested to backup your data before it goes into the Deprovisioned stage. Doing this, you always have a copy of the data that can be easily used in any Outlook version as the software saves the data in PST file too.
