Office 365 Archives -

Mastering the User Off-Boarding Process

by Mark | Sep 16, 2025 | Office 365, SharePoint

How to Protect Your Data When Employees Leave

When someone leaves your organisation — whether they resign, retire, or are let go — it’s easy to think the hard work is over. But the moment an employee’s last day arrives, a new risk window opens. If their access isn’t revoked properly or their data isn’t captured, organisations face security breaches, data loss, compliance issues, and rising costs.

This is why a well-designed user off-boarding process is just as important as onboarding. And it’s where Chipmunk can dramatically simplify and secure your operations.

The Risks of Poor Off-Boarding

Many organisations underestimate how much business knowledge is locked inside user accounts. When those accounts are deleted or licenses are removed without planning, it can create significant problems. Former users may still have access to email, Teams, or shared documents if access isn’t revoked cleanly. Microsoft 365 automatically purges inactive accounts after a short grace period, which can permanently erase critical business records.

This lack of planning also creates compliance risks. Without a record of former employees’ data, you may fail audits or be unable to respond to legal discovery requests. Beyond legal and security issues, poor off-boarding also impacts day-to-day operations. When user accounts disappear, managers lose visibility into projects, conversations, and files, which disrupts workflows and knowledge continuity.

The Best-Practice Off-Boarding Process

A robust off-boarding process should follow a structured sequence to ensure no step is missed. While the exact tasks may vary between organisations, these core stages are widely recognised as best practice:

HR Initiation and Communication. HR formally notifies IT and relevant managers of the employee’s departure, confirms the exit date, and collects any company-owned equipment. This communication triggers the technical off-boarding workflow.
Pre-Exit Access Planning. IT reviews all accounts, licenses, and roles the user holds, including Microsoft 365 services, line-of-business apps, VPN, and administrative privileges. A plan is made to disable these systematically to avoid disruptions.
Data Capture and Archiving. Before the account is disabled, all user data must be preserved — OneDrive, Exchange mailbox, and Teams chats. This protects business knowledge and ensures compliance.
This is where Chipmunk comes in. With a single action, Chipmunk captures and archives the user’s entire digital footprint inside your own Azure tenant, creating a secure and immutable record that remains accessible to authorised teams.
License Recovery and Account Deactivation. Once data is captured, IT can safely disable the account, revoke MFA, remove from groups, and free up Microsoft 365 licenses for reuse. This step immediately reduces costs and closes security gaps.
Content Ownership Reassignment. Shared content such as Teams channels, SharePoint sites, or shared mailboxes should be reassigned to other users or managers to maintain project continuity.
Audit and Compliance Logging. All actions taken should be logged for audit purposes. Chipmunk automatically generates a complete record of the archived data and the actions taken, supporting legal and governance needs.
Retention and Eventual Deletion.Archived user data should be retained according to your organisation’s policy or industry regulations. After the retention period expires, it can be securely deleted to reduce storage costs.

Following these steps ensures every departure is handled consistently, securely, and in full compliance — protecting both your data and your reputation.

User Off-Boarding Checklist

Secure Every Departure — Step by Step

1. HR Initiation

Notify IT and line managers of departure
Confirm final working day
Begin collection of company devices

2. Access Planning

Inventory all user accounts and admin roles
Document MFA status, group memberships, shared mailboxes
Prepare account disablement sequence – Disable User Account

3. Data Capture & Archiving

Chipmunk detects disbled account and starts the archiving process of the users data
Capture user’s OneDrive, Exchange mailbox, and Teams data
Store securely inside your Azure tenant

4. License Recovery & Account Deactivation

Disable sign-ins and revoke MFA
Remove from all security groups
Reclaim Microsoft 365 licenses

5. Content Ownership Reassignment

Reassign Teams channels to managers
Transfer shared mailboxes or delegated access
Ensure project continuity for remaining staff

6. Audit & Compliance Logging

Record every off-boarding action
Capture evidence of data archiving
Maintain logs for governance and legal needs

7. Retention & Eventual Deletion

Apply retention policy for archived data
Schedule secure deletion after policy expiry
Validate removal and update records

Where Most Organisations Struggle

Despite having good intentions, off-boarding is often messy and manual. Different IT staff follow different steps, with little visibility into all the places a user’s data lives. Exporting content from OneDrive or Teams can be clumsy and error-prone, and often ties up IT resources for days.

Because there’s no single repository of archived user data, information gets lost, and managers have no easy way to recover it. This creates a gap between what organisations want — secure, compliant off-boarding — and what they can realistically deliver with limited time and tools.

Introducing Chipmunk: Automated Microsoft 365 Off-Boarding

Chipmunk was built to solve this problem. It automates the most critical and time-consuming part of off-boarding: capturing and preserving departing users’ data. Chipmunk collects OneDrive files, Exchange mailboxes, and Teams chats, automatically.

Once captured, the data is stored securely in your own Azure tenant, under your full control. It’s compliant, and easily searchable by authorised staff such as managers, HR, or legal teams. Chipmunk’s approach frees up costly Microsoft 365 licenses immediately after off-boarding and maintains a full audit trail of every action taken, which is critical for compliance. Most importantly, because Chipmunk operates inside your Azure environment, your data never leaves your control.

How Chipmunk Fits Into Your Off-Boarding Workflow

With Chipmunk in place, the process becomes seamless. HR notifies IT when a user is leaving. IT disables the user account then Chipmunk, which automatically captures all the user’s data across Microsoft 365 — OneDrive, Exchange, and Teams. That content is stored securely in Azure, where it can be searched and retrieved if needed later.

Once the archive is complete, IT receives an email from Chipmunk saying the users data has been archived and can then disable the user’s account, reclaim the licenses, and revoke all access. What previously took days of manual work can now be completed in a fraction of the time, with complete confidence and zero data loss.

Make Off-Boarding a Strength, Not a Weakness

User off-boarding is a critical moment in the employee lifecycle — and often the most neglected. Without a clear process, organisations risk losing valuable knowledge, breaching compliance rules, or leaving security gaps that can be exploited.

With Chipmunk, you can turn off-boarding from a risky manual chore into a fast, secure, and automated process that protects your organisation every time someone leaves.

Chipmunk: Automate Off-Boarding and Cut Costs

Free up Microsoft 365 licenses instantly while keeping all user data safely stored for compliance, audits, and future access.

Ensure no knowledge is lost by automatically capturing and archiving departing employees’ OneDrive, Exchange and Teams content before accounts are removed.

Secure Every Departing User’s Data

Search for Chipmunk in Microsoft Marketplace to get Started.

Stop paying for Microsoft 365 licenses

by Mark | Jul 2, 2025 | Office 365

How to Stop Paying for Microsoft 365 Licenses After an Employee Leaves

When someone leaves your company, the natural step is to disable their Microsoft 365 account. But what many businesses don’t realize is that they often continue paying for that user’s license — just to retain access to their OneDrive files, Teams chats, and emails.

Over time, this adds up to thousands in unnecessary costs.

In this article, we’ll explain:

Why Microsoft 365 makes it difficult to offboard users without data loss
What happens to a user’s data when their license is removed
How to stop paying for ex-employee licenses while retaining access to critical data
A simpler, automated solution using Chipmunk

The Problem: You’re Still Paying for Departed User Licenses

When an employee leaves, their account is typically:

Disabled in Entra ID (formerly Azure Active Directory)
But the Microsoft 365 license remains assigned

Why? Because once the license is removed, Microsoft begins deleting that user’s data.

That means IT teams often keep licenses active just to preserve data — even if that data may never be used again.

If you’re paying $30/month for each departed user’s license, that’s:

100 users = $3,000/month
100 users = $36,000/year

And this is just to hold onto data that should already be safely archived.

What Happens to Microsoft 365 Data When a License is Removed?

Unless you’ve set up retention policies or manually archived the data, Microsoft will begin deleting user data after a license is removed.

Here’s what typically happens:

Service	Retention After License Removal	Outcome
OneDrive	30 days	Files permanently deleted
Exchange Email	30–60 days	Mailbox content deleted
Teams Chats	Up to 93 days	Chats and message history deleted

If you remove a license and haven’t backed up the data, you could permanently lose important files, emails, or conversations needed for handovers, audits, or legal compliance.

Why This Is a Costly Problem?

Microsoft offers tools like retention policies and inactive mailboxes, but they are:

Difficult to configure correctly
Don’t cover everything (Teams chat is a common gap)
Often still require the license to remain in place

This means many organizations choose to keep paying for the license instead of risking data loss.

Over time, this becomes a hidden cost — one that can run into tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars per year, depending on your organization size and turnover rate.

The Right Way to Handle Offboarding: Archive Then Delete

The best solution is simple:

Archive all of the user’s data when they leave, then safely remove their license.

That means:

Downloading and saving their OneDrive data
Exporting all Exchange emails
Capturing Teams conversations
Storing the data securely for future reference

Doing this manually is time-consuming and error-prone. It also requires different tools for each data type, making it difficult to maintain consistency or ensure compliance.

Introducing Chipmunk: Automated Offboarding for Microsoft 365

Chipmunk is a purpose-built solution to solve this problem.

It automates the entire offboarding process by:

Detecting when a Microsoft 365 user is disabled in Entra ID
Automatically backing up their:
- OneDrive files (with full folder structure)
- Exchange emails (saved in .eml format)
- Microsoft Teams messages (including private chats and attachments)
Uploading the data to your own Azure Blob Storage
Logging every action for full auditability

Once Chipmunk completes the archive, you can safely remove the license — no risk of data loss, no ongoing Microsoft billing.

How It Works (Step by Step)

A user is disabled in Microsoft Entra ID
Chipmunk automatically detects the change
It backs up OneDrive, Email, and Teams data
The archive is securely stored in your Azure Blob Storage
You delete the Microsoft license with confidence that nothing has been lost

No scripts. No retention policies. No risk.

Built for Compliance and Peace of Mind

Chipmunk helps your organization meet data retention and compliance requirements across multiple regulatory frameworks, including:

ISO 27001
GDPR
HIPAA
SEC 17a-4
Microsoft Purview compatibility

By automatically archiving all content from disabled Microsoft 365 users and storing it securely in your own Azure tenant, Chipmunk ensures your data is fully retained, auditable, and under your control — without reliance on ongoing Microsoft licensing or complex configurations.

Summary: Don’t Let Data Loss or Licensing Waste Sneak Up on You

Without Chipmunk	With Chipmunk
Continue paying $30+/user/month	Remove license immediately after archiving
Manual exports or retention policies	Fully automated archiving
Data gaps in Teams, OneDrive, Exchange	All covered automatically
Compliance risk, audit blind spots	Secure, logged, and audit-ready archives

Ready to Save on Microsoft 365 Licensing?

If your organization is still paying for ex-employee licenses just to preserve their data — it’s time to stop.

Chipmunk gives you a fully automated, secure, and cost-effective way to archive departed user data across OneDrive, Teams, and Exchange — and safely delete the license.

Departed M365 Users

by Mark | Jul 1, 2025 | Office 365, Onedrive, Risk

What Happens to Microsoft 365 Data After an Employee Leaves?

When someone leaves your organization, the first step IT usually takes is to disable their Microsoft 365 account. But have you ever stopped to ask:

“What happens to all their data — their files, emails, and chats — after that?”

The answer might surprise you.

If you’re not actively managing this, Microsoft will automatically delete that data — often in as little as 30 days.

This post explains exactly what gets deleted (and when), why this is a problem, and what you can do to protect that data — without paying for unnecessary licenses.

Microsoft’s Countdown to Data Deletion

Let’s start with a simple truth:

Disabling a user in Microsoft 365 doesn’t save their data forever.

Instead, Microsoft starts a ticking clock. Unless you take action, data begins disappearing — fast.

Here’s what typically happens:

Service	Default Retention	What’s Deleted	Can You Recover It?
OneDrive	30 days	All files and folders	Maybe, but not always
Exchange	30–60 days	Mailbox content	Sometimes
Teams Chat	Up to 93 days	All chat history and attachments	Usually not

So if an employee leaves on January 1st, by April their Teams messages, OneDrive files, and mailbox may be completely gone.

Why This Matters — And Who Should Care

Most people assume Microsoft keeps this data for legal or security reasons. But that’s not how it works.

Microsoft isn’t your backup provider. Its job is to deliver service, not long-term data retention.

This creates big risks for:

IT teams, who might need to retrieve a user’s files later
Legal and compliance officers, who must retain emails and chat records
HR and management, who need access to handover materials, customer comms, etc.

And unless you assign a license to the user’s account forever, that data is eventually lost.

A Real-World Scenario

Let’s say you’re offboarding an employee named Sarah. She’s been with the company for 5 years.

She has:

200 GB of OneDrive files
50,000 emails in Exchange
Years of chats with project teams in Microsoft Teams

You disable her Microsoft 365 account. Now what?

30 days later, her OneDrive starts purging
60 days later, her mailbox may be gone
By day 93, her Teams chat history is unrecoverable

Now legal asks for chat logs from a project she was on 6 months ago… and it’s too late.

Can’t I Just Use Microsoft Retention Policies?

Yes — but it’s not as easy as it sounds.

You’d need to:

Set up custom retention policies in Microsoft Purview
Create inactive mailboxes (which still require licenses)
Use PowerShell scripts to export OneDrive manually
Deal with Teams data that isn’t easily exportable

And even then, you’re not guaranteed to retain everything — especially chat data.

It’s complex, time-consuming, and risky.

The Simpler Option: Use Chipmunk

Chipmunk is a tool built specifically to solve this exact problem.

It watches for when you disable a user and automatically backs up their:

OneDrive files and folder structure
Exchange emails
Teams chats (including private and group chats)

All the data is stored in your own Azure Blob Storage, so:

You own the data
You don’t need to keep paying Microsoft licenses
You can access it anytime — for audits, legal cases, or handovers

No scripts. No licenses. No data loss.

How It Works — In Plain English

Here’s how Chipmunk fits into your offboarding process:

User is disabled in Microsoft Entra ID (formerly Azure AD)
Chipmunk detects it automatically
It downloads all key data — OneDrive, Email, and Teams
It uploads the data into organized folders in your Azure storage
It updates your central dashboard with status and logs
It emails you the results of the archive activity for each user.
You don’t have to remember to do anything. It just works in the background.

Bonus: Save on Microsoft Licenses

Did you know keeping a disabled user’s data often requires a paid Microsoft 365 license?

That could mean paying $20–$40/month per user just to retain inactive data.

With Chipmunk, you can archive it once — and delete the user safely.

For companies with hundreds of staff turnover each year, that’s tens of thousands in savings.

Compliant. Secure. Yours.

Chipmunk is built for:

Data compliance (GDPR, ISO, HIPAA-ready)
Cost reduction (free up licenses without losing data)
IT simplicity (no need to learn Microsoft Purview or eDiscovery)

And because all archived data is stored in your own Azure tenant, you stay in control at all times.

TL;DR

What Happens by Default	What Chipmunk Does
Microsoft deletes data after 30–93 days	Chipmunk backs it up automatically
You must set complex retention rules	No configuration needed
Teams chat is hard to retain	Chipmunk grabs it for you
Ongoing license may be required	Chipmunk lets you delete users safely
Risk of permanent data loss	Permanent backup in Azure

Ready to Never Lose Ex-Employee Data Again?

Don’t wait for day 93.

If you want peace of mind, predictable offboarding, and full control of your M365 user data — Chipmunk can help.

Microsoft 365 Backup

by Mark | Mar 27, 2025 | Microsoft Teams, Office 365, Onedrive, SharePoint

Understanding Microsoft 365’s Native Data Protection

Protecting your organization’s data within Microsoft 365 is crucial to ensure business continuity, compliance, and resilience against threats like accidental deletions, cyberattacks, and data corruption. Implementing a comprehensive backup strategy safeguards your critical information and facilitates rapid recovery when needed.

Microsoft 365 offers built-in data protection features designed to maintain high availability and disaster recovery:

High Availability and Disaster Recovery (HADR): Microsoft 365 services are architected for resilience, with replicated data copies to ensure seamless failover during service disruptions.

Data Retention Policies: Tools like Microsoft Purview provide long-term retention capabilities, ensuring critical data remains preserved and compliant with organizational policies.

Versioning and Recycle Bin: Features such as file versioning and a two-stage recycle bin allow users to recover previous versions or deleted items within specific timeframes.

While these features offer a foundational level of data protection, they may not fully address all recovery scenarios, particularly those involving extensive data loss or corruption.

Why Implement Additional Backup Solutions?

Relying solely on native Microsoft 365 protections might leave gaps in your data recovery strategy. Consider the following scenarios:

Accidental or Malicious Deletions: Users might inadvertently delete important emails or documents, or malicious actors could remove critical data. Once retention periods expire, recovery becomes challenging.

Cybersecurity Threats: Ransomware attacks can encrypt or corrupt data, necessitating restoration from clean backups to resume normal operations.

Regulatory Compliance: Certain industries require data to be stored for extended periods or in specific formats, which may exceed Microsoft 365’s native retention capabilities.

To address these challenges, integrating a dedicated backup solution ensures comprehensive data protection and swift recovery options.

Best Practices for Microsoft 365 Backup

Assess Business Requirements and Risks: Identify which Microsoft 365 data—such as emails, documents, and calendars—are critical to your operations and determine the potential impact of data loss.

Select an Appropriate Backup Solution: Consider utilizing Microsoft’s own backup offerings or reputable third-party solutions that integrate seamlessly with Microsoft 365. These solutions should provide features like granular recovery, automated backups, and compliance support.

Define Backup Frequency and Retention Policies: Establish how often backups should occur and the duration for retaining backup data, aligning with your organization’s data recovery objectives and compliance requirements.

Implement Security Measures: Ensure backup data is encrypted both in transit and at rest to protect against unauthorized access. Utilize features like multi-factor authentication (MFA) and role-based access controls to enhance security.

Regularly Test Backup and Restore Processes: Conduct periodic tests to verify the integrity of backups and the effectiveness of restoration procedures. This practice helps identify and address potential issues before a real data loss event occurs.

Monitor and Audit Backup Activities: Implement monitoring tools to oversee backup operations and generate alerts for failures or unusual activities. Regular audits ensure compliance with internal policies and external regulations.

Educate Employees: Train staff on data protection policies and the importance of backups. Awareness reduces the risk of accidental deletions and encourages adherence to best practices.

Conclusion

Implementing a robust backup strategy for Microsoft 365 is essential to protect your organization’s data assets. By understanding the limitations of native protections and adopting comprehensive backup solutions, you can safeguard against data loss, ensure regulatory compliance, and maintain business continuity.

2025 OneDrive Licensing Changes

by Mark | Mar 20, 2025 | Office 365

Navigating Recent Microsoft OneDrive Licensing Changes

Microsoft recently announced significant changes to its OneDrive licensing and storage policies, affecting organizations that heavily rely on cloud storage solutions. Starting January 27, 2025, unlicensed OneDrive accounts—those without assigned user licenses—will be automatically archived after 93 days, rendering them inaccessible unless covered by retention policies or legal holds.

Key Takeaways

Change	Impact on Businesses	Recommended Action
Automatic archiving after 93 days	Risk of losing access to important data	Assign licenses timely; audit accounts regularly
Reactivation and storage fees	Unexpected operational costs	Set up billing proactively
Retention policies and legal holds	Essential for compliance and access	Verify and update policies regularly
Admin notifications and reporting	Increased administrative oversight	Utilize Microsoft 365 Message Center reports

What’s Changing for OneDrive Licensing?

Here’s a detailed breakdown of the changes:

Archiving of Unlicensed Accounts: After 93 days, unlicensed OneDrive accounts will be automatically archived.
Inaccessibility: Archived accounts become inaccessible to both users and administrators, except when protected by retention policies or legal holds.
Retention Policies and Legal Holds: Content under these policies remains accessible via specific mechanisms, despite archiving.
New Fees: Reactivating archived accounts incurs fees ($0.60 per GB), as does storing archived accounts ($0.05 per GB per month).
OneDrive Sync Warning: Users without assigned licenses will see warnings, and accounts will initially enter read-only mode prior to archiving.

Microsoft cites safety and security concerns as the motivation, highlighting risks such as security vulnerabilities, compliance issues, and file duplication associated with unmanaged accounts.

Impacts on Businesses

These licensing changes can significantly affect businesses by:

Increased Operational Complexity: Organizations must proactively monitor account statuses and manage licenses to prevent unexpected charges.
Escalating Costs: Reactivation fees and ongoing storage costs for archived data could rapidly escalate organizational expenses.
Heightened Compliance Risks: Premature archiving of data could lead to inadvertent violations of regulatory compliance.
Operational Disruptions: Loss of access to important data from archived accounts could disrupt workflows and business continuity.

Preparation is Key

Organizations can mitigate these impacts by:

Regularly auditing unlicensed accounts.
Promptly assigning licenses or removing unnecessary accounts.
Configuring Microsoft 365 Archive billing proactively to manage and predict costs effectively.

Enter Chipmunk

Automated OneDrive Data Protection

To address these challenges proactively, we’ve developed Chipmunk, our innovative solution designed to help organizations navigate these licensing changes seamlessly. Chipmunk automatically monitors Microsoft Entra ID (formerly Azure AD) and initiates backups of OneDrive files from disabled or inactive accounts before they become archived, safeguarding your data.

How Chipmunk Helps Your Organization

Automatic Backups: Prevents data loss by securely backing up OneDrive files before Microsoft archives accounts.
Cost Efficiency: Minimizes potential reactivation and storage fees associated with archived data.
Simplified Compliance: Provides straightforward access to backed-up data, ensuring compliance with regulatory and audit requirements.

FAQ

Q: When do these changes take effect?
A: Starting January 27, 2025, and will gradually roll out over a few months.

Q: Will archived accounts be completely inaccessible?
A: Archived accounts are inaccessible unless covered by retention policies or legal holds.

Q: How can I avoid unexpected fees from these changes?
A: Proactively audit accounts, assign licenses timely, and configure Microsoft 365 Archive billing.

Q: Can I reactivate an archived account?
A: Yes, but reactivation will incur fees ($0.60 per GB).

Stay Ahead of the Changes

As Microsoft’s licensing and storage policies evolve, staying ahead is essential. Chipmunk ensures your organization remains protected, compliant, and cost-efficient.

Don’t wait until it’s too late—get proactive with Chipmunk today.

SharePoint vs. OneDrive vs. Teams

by Mark | Mar 4, 2025 | Microsoft Teams, Office 365, SharePoint

Where Should You Store Your Files?

Microsoft 365 offers multiple file storage solutions—SharePoint, OneDrive, and Teams—each designed for different use cases. However, many organizations struggle to determine where to store files and how to manage document collaboration efficiently. Choosing the wrong storage location can lead to content sprawl, security risks, and version control issues.

In this guide, we’ll break down the key differences between SharePoint, OneDrive, and Teams, explore best practices, and help you decide the right place to store your files.

Key Takeaways: Quick Comparison

Feature	OneDrive	SharePoint	Teams
Best for	Personal file storage	Team collaboration & document management	Real-time team collaboration
Default Permissions	Private (unless shared)	Managed at site/library level	Shared with team members
Version Control	Basic	Advanced (major/minor versions)	Advanced (via SharePoint)
Collaboration	Limited	Extensive (workflows, permissions, co-authoring)	Extensive (chat + file sharing)
Integration	Limited	Deep Microsoft 365 integration	Full Microsoft 365 integration

sharepoint vs onedrive vs teams overview

Understanding the Purpose of Each Storage Solution

What is OneDrive?

OneDrive is personal cloud storage for Microsoft 365 users. It is designed primarily for individual use, allowing employees to store their own work files securely in the cloud. By default, files stored in OneDrive are private, but users can share them as needed.

Key Features of OneDrive:

Personal storage space – Each user gets their own OneDrive with ample storage.
Seamless synchronization – Access files across devices, including desktops, mobile devices, and the web.
File sharing options – Users can share files with colleagues via links or access controls.
Limited collaboration – While co-authoring is possible, OneDrive lacks the structured collaboration tools found in SharePoint and Teams.
Backup and security – Files are protected in Microsoft’s secure cloud and can be restored if deleted.

What is SharePoint?

SharePoint is a powerful team collaboration and document management platform that provides a structured way to store, manage, and share files across an organization. Unlike OneDrive, SharePoint is meant for teams and departments to work together on shared files with version control, metadata, and advanced permissions.

Key Features of SharePoint:

Team and department file storage – Centralized storage for teams, projects, and organizations.
Advanced permissions management – Assign read, edit, or full control access to different groups or individuals.
Version history and co-authoring – Track changes and allow multiple people to edit documents simultaneously.
Integration with Microsoft 365 – Works with Power Automate, Power Apps, and Microsoft Lists for workflow automation.
Customizable document libraries – Organize content efficiently with metadata, columns, and filters.

What is Microsoft Teams?

Microsoft Teams is a collaboration and communication hub that includes chat, meetings, calls, and file sharing. While Teams itself is not a storage platform, it integrates deeply with SharePoint and OneDrive.

Key Features of Microsoft Teams:

Real-time collaboration – Share files, edit documents, and discuss projects in a unified workspace.
Chat and meetings integration – Combine messaging and document collaboration for seamless teamwork.
Tightly integrated with SharePoint – Files uploaded to Teams are actually stored in SharePoint document libraries.
Channel-based organization – Create teams and channels to keep conversations and files structured.
Permissions inherited from Teams membership – Files shared in Teams are automatically available to team members.

Common Scenarios: Where Should You Store Your Files?

💡 Scenario 1: You’re working on a draft document that only you need access to. ✅ Store it in OneDrive (it’s your personal cloud storage).

💡 Scenario 2: Your marketing team needs access to shared branding files. ✅ Store it in SharePoint (it’s an organization-wide resource).

💡 Scenario 3: Your project team needs to collaborate on files and discuss progress. ✅ Store them in Teams (it provides chat, meetings, and file collaboration).

💡 Scenario 4: You’re moving from a network drive and want a structured document repository. ✅ Use SharePoint (it allows folders, metadata tagging, and governance).

💡 Scenario 5: You need to share a quick file with a colleague. ✅ Use OneDrive (and send a direct sharing link).

Best Practices for File Storage in Microsoft 365

✔ Use OneDrive for personal and temporary files. ✔ Use SharePoint for team collaboration and document retention. ✔ Use Teams for project-based file sharing and discussions. ✔ Enable version control in SharePoint to track changes. ✔ Implement governance policies to prevent content sprawl. ✔ Archive old content to reduce SharePoint storage costs.

FAQs: Your Top Questions Answered

1️⃣ Can I move files between OneDrive, SharePoint, and Teams? Yes! Files can be moved or copied between OneDrive, SharePoint, and Teams using the “Move To” or “Copy To” options.

2️⃣ Is OneDrive private? Yes, OneDrive files are private by default, but they can be shared with others.

3️⃣ Can I use SharePoint as a file server replacement? Yes, SharePoint can replace traditional file servers with its cloud-based storage and document management features.

4️⃣ What happens if I delete a file in Teams? Files in Teams are stored in SharePoint. If deleted, they go to the SharePoint recycle bin and can be restored within 93 days.

5️⃣ How is Teams different from SharePoint? Teams is a collaboration hub with chat and meetings, while SharePoint is a structured document management system.

6️⃣ Can I access OneDrive files offline? Yes, OneDrive allows offline access through the OneDrive sync app on Windows and Mac.

7️⃣ What’s the maximum file size for SharePoint and OneDrive? The maximum upload limit for SharePoint and OneDrive is 250GB per file.

8️⃣ Does Teams store files separately from SharePoint? No, files shared in Teams are actually stored in the underlying SharePoint document library.

9️⃣ Should I store sensitive data in SharePoint? Yes, but it’s recommended to apply security policies such as DLP (Data Loss Prevention) and access controls.

🔟 How can I save SharePoint storage space? Use an archiving solution like Squirrel Archiving to move older files to Azure while maintaining accessibility.

Conclusion

Choosing between OneDrive, SharePoint, and Teams depends on who needs access, how the files will be used, and whether collaboration is required. By following these best practices, you can improve productivity, enhance security, and optimize your Microsoft 365 storage strategy.

If your organization struggles with SharePoint storage limits, consider Squirrel Archiving to optimize space and keep your SharePoint environment efficient.

📢 Need help managing SharePoint storage? Learn more about Squirrel.

SHAREPOINT COSTS GOT YOU DOWN?

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