Microsoft 365 Teams and Group Expiration Policy

Microsoft 365 Teams and Groups are used by university members as a central hub for communication and collaboration. Over time, Teams and Groups that are no longer being used become inactive. To help manage the growing number of unused Microsoft 365 Groups and Teams, ITS will enable a Microsoft Group Expiration Policy effective July 18.

For active Teams or Groups, automatic renewal will occur when any member of the Team or Group performs any of the following actions:

  • SharePoint: View, edit, download, move, share, or upload files.
  • Outlook: Join or edit the group, read or write group messages, and like messages (Outlook on the web).
  • Teams: Visit a Teams channel.
  • Forms: View, create, or edit forms, or submit responses to forms.

If there has been no activity by members in the last 365 days, the Team or Group will be considered inactive. In this scenario, the following steps will occur:

  • Team and Group owners will receive notifications 30 days, 15 days and one day before expiration, providing an opportunity to manually renew the group.
  • Failure to renew before expiration will result in the deletion of the Team or Group.
  • Deleted groups can be restored by the owners for 30 days.

Teams and Groups with owners who have an active affiliation will have the 365-day inactivity timer start on July 18. Teams and Groups with owner(s) who have a non-active affiliation will begin to expire 30 days after the Group Expiration Policy is enabled on July 18.

Visit Answers for more information about Teams and Groups expiration policies at Syracuse University.