To help improve data management and support University data retention policies, Microsoft 365 Groups expire after two years if they are inactive.
What’s a Microsoft 365 Group?
Think of a Microsoft 365 Group as a shared space where a team or committee can collaborate. Creating a group gives members automatic access to:
- A shared email inbox and calendar
- A shared file storage location (SharePoint)
- Task management tools
- A group notebook
- Microsoft Forms owned by a group
These groups are commonly created for team projects, departmental collaboration, or committees—and sometimes by accident! When a group is deleted (due to expiration or otherwise) all connected content mentioned above will also be deleted.
Two-Year Expiration for Inactive Groups
- Starting May 14, owners of inactive Microsoft 365 Groups will begin receiving notifications to renew their groups. Groups that are not renewed within 30 days will be automatically deleted.
- This includes deletion of:
- SharePoint sites connected to the group
- Microsoft Teams
- Planner boards
- Archived Microsoft Teams
- Forms connected to groups
- Groups can be renewed before expiration to prevent deletion.
- Going forward, inactive groups will need to be renewed every two years. If they are not renewed, they will be deleted. Active groups (those with Teams activity, SharePoint activity, Outlook emails, and Forms views/edits) are automatically renewed.
How Group Owners Will Be Notified about Expiring Groups
If you're the owner of a Microsoft 365 Group, you’ll receive reminders before any expiration happens:
- 30 days before: You'll receive the first email reminder
- 15 days before: A second reminder will be sent
- 1 day before: A final reminder email will arrive
If your group was created in Microsoft Teams, you'll also see a notification directly in Teams.
These messages will include a simple option to renew the group for another two years. If no action is taken, the group will be deleted after the expiration date. After that, the group can be restored by ITS within 30 days.
If there are no owners assigned to a group, a ticket will be created and ITS will determine if the group is still active. We may reach out to group members regarding ownership and if the group is still needed.
Notifications about expiring groups will come from “Microsoft Groups Team” at msgroupsteam@microsoft.com. See example email below.
What you can do:
- Watch for group expiration and owner notifications.
- Take ownership of any groups without an owner.
- Renew any groups you want to keep.
- Keep you groups active with a Teams message, viewing something in SharePoint, or emailing the group in Outlook.
Active groups will not require any renewal. Any of the following actions will automatically renew a group and keep it active:
- SharePoint - View, edit, download, move, share, or upload files. (Viewing a SharePoint page doesn't count as an action for automatic renewal.)
- Outlook - Join or edit group, read or write group message from the group, and like a message (Outlook on the web).
- Teams - Visit a teams channel.
- Viva Engage - View a post within a Viva Engage community or an interactive email in Outlook.
- Forms - View, create, or edit forms, or submit a response to a form.
Want to Keep Group Content Without Keeping the Group?
Consider moving your files and other content to another SharePoint site or Team. Emails can be forwarded, and you can use the “Move” option on SharePoint and Teams to move files.
Have questions? Reach out to by submitting a ticket to Collaboration and File Sharing on Tommie Tech Services.