How to Archive Former Employee Mailboxes in Office 365 – Explained in Detail

How to Archive Former Employee Mailboxes in Office 365?

There are two methods you can follow to archive former employee mailboxes in Office 365: 

1. Converting to a shared mailbox. 
2. Creating an inactive mailbox.

Method 1: Converting to a Shared mailbox

This is one of the easiest and quickest methods to use to archive the former employees’ mailbox, despite having some flaws. Here are the steps to do so: 

1. Log in to the Office 365 portal.
2. Go to the Admin Center.
3. Go to the Users option, and then Active Users. 
4. Select the user and in the properties tab, go to the Convert to shared mailbox. 
5. Confirm the pop-up that appears by clicking on the Convert option. 

Pros and Cons of Converting to a Shared Mailbox

Pros: 

1. Shared mailboxes cannot be accessed using their login and password credentials. Users need to have permission to access the shared mailbox. 
2. This enables quick license recycling. 
3. It enables admins to monitor who makes the changes. 

Cons: 

1. Users can freely change a shared mailbox. 
2. It is not a reliable solution in terms of legal compliance. 
3. Shared licences that require storage above 50GB need to have a license. 
4. Other users will be able to send mail to the shared mailbox. 
5. This method becomes problematic for the eDiscovery accounts. 

Method 2: Creating an Inactive Mailbox

One of the other method for how to archive former employee mailboxes in Office 365 is to create  an inactive mailbox, instead of deleting it completely. In order to apply a retention policy or litigation hold you need to make sure that the account has an Exchange Online plan 2 License. Follow the steps given below in order to create inactive mailboxes with a litigation hold. 

1. After you access the properties of the user, turn on the litigation hold option. 
2. You can specify additional settings such as how long the hold should be turned on. 
3. The portal will display a note after you click on the save button. 
4. After making sure that the hold works, you can now click on the Delete user option to create an inactive mailbox. 
5. You can still search the contents of the inactive mailbox through eDiscovery. 

Pros and Cons of Creating an Inactive Mailbox

Pros: 

1. Allows users to preserve the mailbox content. 
2. Users can use eDiscovery to export content. 

Cons: 

1. It requires an Exchange Online Plan 2 License in order to delete the mailbox. 
2. eDiscovery only supports exporting to PST format. 
3. It may take up to an hour for legal hold to work.

What Else Can Admins Do During the Offboarding Process?

After discussing the methods of how to archive former employee mailboxes in Office 365, you should also learn how to securely offload a former employee account. 

Administrators can manage the accounts of the employees leaving the organisation by following the points discussed below: 

1. Resetting the Password of the user account.
2. Blocking signing in for the account. 
3. Setting up email forwarding.
4. Preserving the data of the employee who has left the organisation. 
5. Adding email alias. 
6. Reassigning the Office 365 license from the former employee’s account.

• Resetting the Password of the User account

The first step to follow is to reset the password and remove access for the employee. Follow the steps to reset a password in Microsoft 365. 

1. Log in to the Admin Portal. 
2. Click on the Users option, and then choose the Active Users option. 
3. Select the user
4. Click on the Reset Password option. 
5. Choose the appropriate new password.
6. You can send the new password to your admin’s email. 
7. On the accounts tab, select the Sign out of all sessions option. 

• Blocking Signing in for the Account

After resetting the password, you need to make sure that the former employee is unable to reset the password themselves. Follow the steps to block the sign in option for the account. 

1. In the admin centre, click on Users > Account management > Search Users.
2. Select the employee’s name and click on the Block this user option. 
3. Select Block this user from signing in and then click on the save option. 

• Setting up Email Forwarding.

Before deleting the account, you should notify all the other contacts that this account would not be available anymore. You can also set up email forwarding. You can preserve all the connections by doing this. Clients and other business partners can continue being in contact with your organisation due to this. 

Follow the steps to set up email forwarding: 

1. Log in and go to Microsoft 365 Admin Center. 
2. Select the Users option and then click on Active Users. 
3. Under Mail, click on Manage email forwarding. 
4. Click on Forward all emails sent to this mailbox. Enter the address you want mail to be forwarded to. 
5. Select the Save Changes option. 

• Preserving the Data of the Employee who has Left the Organisation.

For compliance, legal, or business continuity purposes, you probably need to keep business-critical ex-employee data like emails, SharePoint, and OneDrive files. It is possible to do so, but can prove to be expensive. Archiving is the best way to preserve data without paying full price for the account. 

• Adding Email Alias

The best way to preserve a former employee’s address is by creating an email alias for the user. It is basically an additional email address for an existing account and associated cloud storage. 

Follow the steps to create an alias: 

1. Log in and go to the admin centre. 
2. Select Users and then Active Users.
3. Under the account tab, select the manage username and email option. 
4. Assign an alias by adding a new name in the username option and then choose the add option after selecting the domain. 
5. Select the save changes option. 

• Reassigning the Office 365 License From the Former Employee’s Account.

When you have completed all the steps given above, you need to remove the Office 365 licence from the former employee’s account. The first step to follow is to reassign it from the user account: 

1. In the Microsoft admin centre, go to Users and then click on Active Users page.
2. Select the employee you want to remove the license from. 
3. Choose the Licenses and Apps tab. 
4. Click and uncheck checkboxes you want to remove and save the changes made. 

You will be able to access the account data for the next 30 days before it is deleted forever. You can now assign the active license to a current employee or you can delete from your subscriptions and stop paying for it. 

To delete the license, you can follow these steps: 

1. Go to the Microsoft admin center, and click on the billing option. 
2. Choose the your products option. 
3. Click on the subscription and delete the license from it. 
4. Click on the Remove licenses. 
5. In the Remove Licenses tab, under new quantity option, choose the number of subscriptions you want to keep. 
6. Click on save. 

Now the Former employee has been securely offboarded from your organisation. 

Conclusion

Whenever an employee leaves an organisation, its admins need to follow certain procedures to ensure data security. Admins need to disable the ability to sign in to their account or remove their user account completely. We have discussed how to archive former employee mailboxes in Office 365 in detail and have also provided ways to securely offload these former employees’ account.