Microsoft 365 Groups and Teams Expiration Policy

Overview 

Effective November 7, 2025, any Microsoft 365 Group or Team that has not had any activity in the past 180 days will enter a 30-day expiration process. 

Group or Team owner(s) will receive an email and a notification that their group will expire in 30 days. When a group expires, all associated services and data are also deleted. This includes the group’s mailbox (emails and calendar), Planner, files and folders within the SharePoint site associated with the group, and chats and channels from the Team. 

I am familiar with Teams but what is a Microsoft 365 Group?

Microsoft 365 Groups is the cross-application membership service in Microsoft 365. At a basic level, a Microsoft 365 group is an object in Microsoft Entra ID with a list of members and a coupling to related workloads including a SharePoint team site, shared Exchange mailbox, Planner, and OneNote notebook. You can add or remove people to the group just as you would any other group-based security object in Active Directory. When you create a Microsoft Team, a Microsoft 365 group is created to manage team membership. The group's related services, such as a SharePoint site, mailbox, etc., are created at the same time. (Learn More) 

How will the expiration process work?

If you are the owner of a Microsoft 365 team or group that falls under this category, you will receive an email and a notification starting one month prior to the team or group expiration date. During this time, you can choose to renew the group for another 180 days by clicking the "Renew group" button in the email message.

Alternatively, you can reactivate the team or group by being active in one of the following applications: 

• 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. 

• Forms - View, create, or edit forms, or submit a response to a form. 

If there is no further activity prior to the expiration date, the team or group will be permanently removed. 

What happens to the contents or a team or group when it is removed?
When a team or group is permanently removed, all associated resources and data are removed as well. This includes files, folders, email, calendar, chats, channels, meeting recordings, and third-party applications.

Why is Temple implementing this expiration process?
This process will allow us to free up unnecessary storage space and to better protect personal information.

Need Help?

Please contact the Technology Support Center at tuhelp.temple.edu (click Chat or Request Help) or call 215-204-8000 .