Microsoft 365 Group Expiration Notice and Follow-Up Actions

Issue/Question
Overview

Microsoft 365 Groups provide robust collaboration features, but they are frequently created for short-term or temporary projects. As a result, many groups become inactive over time, increasing the administrative burden and occupying group names that might be better utilized in the future.

Unused Microsoft 365 Groups will automatically expire after 180 days of inactivity. Group owners will receive expiration notices from Microsoft and can keep their groups by responding to the notification. This approach helps reduce clutter from inactive groups while still giving users the opportunity to retain groups they actively use and need.

Environment

  • Microsoft Forms

  • Microsoft Outlook

  • Microsoft Planner

  • Microsoft OneNote

  • Microsoft Teams

  • Microsoft SharePoint

  • Microsoft Yammer

How is Inactivity Defined? 

Microsoft 365 groups are determined to be inactive if any of the following activities have NOT taken place in the past 180 days:

  • Forms: view, create, or edit forms, or submit a response to a form
  • Outlook: join or edit group, read or write group messages from the group, and like a message (Outlook on the web)
  • SharePoint: view, edit, download, move, share, or upload files (viewing a SharePoint page does not count as an action for automatic renewal)
  • Teams: visit a Teams channel
  • Yammer: view a post within a Yammer community or an interactive email in Outlook
Expiration Process 

30 days prior to a group's expiration, the group owner (or all members of the group, if no owner exists) will receive a message notifying them of the group’s expiration.

The text of the message will give the name of the group, an expiration date and include a Renew group button. 

The notification will come from this email address: msgroupsteam@microsoft.com

Below is an example email for reference:

Snapshot of email containing M365 group expiration notification
 

Next Steps

To renew needed Microsoft 365 Groups:

If the group is still in use, regular activity on the group should reset the expiration date and prevent group expiration emails from being sent.

If the group has not had activity but needs to be renewed, recipients can click the Renew group button, sign in with their DSU account, and then automatically renew the group. 

Microsoft 365 Group is no longer needed:

If the group is no longer in use, no action is required. 

If a group is not renewed, then it is deleted 30 days after the notification. Groups can be recovered by ITS up to 30 days after the original deletion date. 

Important: If you've already received an expiration notice, new activity alone may not be enough to reset the expiration. You should always click the Renew button provided in the email to ensure the group remains active.

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