
Cons of auto-expiryĪuto-expiry is effectively auto-deletion without review. But, beyond 30 days the deleted M365 Group and all the content associated with it (including Teams) is irrecoverable (93 days for the SPO site). The SPO site will be recoverable for 93 days. If the expiry notification is missed or overlooked and the Team is soft-deleted, M365 Groups (and their associated Team content) can be restored for up to 30 days. This may be particularly effective for general Teams that have been hardly used and/or known not to contain records.Īuto-expiry may be a useful option in conjunction with retention policies M365 Groups and linked Teams subject to both will be retained beyond the expiry date if they are subject to retention policies. Azure AD Group Expiration Pros of auto-expiryĪutomatically expiring and then deleting M365 Groups can be a simple way to clean up inactive Groups and the linked Teams, based on the last activity of the Group or in the Team (SPO site, EXO email-based ‘conversations’, or channel posts). This option includes renewal notifications (which will appear in Teams) and the ability to select specific M365 Groups (the default is None). The Group’s expiration option is set in the Azure Active Directory (AAD) admin portal under Groups > Settings > General. Microsoft 365 includes the ability to automatically ‘expire’ and then delete all or selected M365 Groups after a given period of inactivity. Therefore, if the M365 Group is destroyed, so will the Team and all its content.


This post examines three ways to manage inactive Teams, especially those that may contain records. The introduction of private channels in 2020 added a new layer of complexity for the management of inactive Teams. In many organisations, inactive Teams – some with no owners and inaccessible to records managers – litter the M365 landscape.

The rapid and often uncontrolled rollout of Microsoft (MS) Teams as part of Microsoft 365 (M365) deployments from early 2020 has become a headache for many records and information managers.
