We're facing an issue where a lot of space in OneDrive is being used for data belonging to employees who have been terminated. I was under the impression that this data would be automatically wiped when we removed their Microsoft 365 license. Our standard procedure for terminating employees includes disabling their account, converting their mailbox to shared, revoking their 365 license, and backing up their data with Veeam for O365. We keep their accounts around in case they come back or for access to any locked files. However, I'm curious if others have strategies to avoid paying for OneDrive storage for these terminated employees. Are there specific steps I should be taking to check for and delete this data?
4 Answers
A straightforward solution could be to just delete accounts after they're disabled for a certain period. We typically wait 90 days, and if we need any data, we can restore it from a previous backup using Veeam.
We follow a similar offboarding process, where OneDrive remains accessible until the user is deleted from Active Directory. Upon deletion, their files go into a soft delete state, giving you 90 days to restore before they are permanently deleted. I also recommend backing up their OneDrive data as a ZIP file on an external drive. Just a heads up, if their OneNote is being used by others, it won't be accessible once they're removed from AD.
It sounds like a retention policy might be keeping their data from being deleted. You might want to check your settings to see if that's the case.
We maintain OneDrive data for a year after termination within a SharePoint site. It doesn't cause issues unless you're running low on space.
It doesn't really seem like a retention issue to me; it looks more like they're keeping the data accessible intentionally.