How to Offboard Microsoft 365 Users

Microsoft 365 users can be fully offboarded only if they are removed from every Cove Data Protection (Cove) data source for which they are backed up. There are options to offboard users and make them non-billable

See Microsoft 365 Billing Policy for information on the billable status of users, based on data source inclusions.

All changes made will be applied only after the next backup session of the applicable data source.

Exchange

For Exchange, there are three options for offboarding a user and making them non-billable:

1. In Microsoft 365 admin center, convert the Regular mailbox to a Shared Mailbox

   Follow Microsoft's instructions on completing this, found here.

   If the protected mailbox is no longer in selection, changing the mailbox type will not be detected by Cove Backup Agent, therefore you need to add the mailbox to the selection first

Or

2. In Cove's Management Console delete the Exchange backup history for the user

Or

3. In Cove's Management Console offboard the single protected user

OneDrive

For OneDrive, there two options for offboarding a user and making them non-billable:

1. In Cove's Management Console delete the OneDrive backup history for the user

Or

2. In Cove's Management Console offboard the single protected user

SharePoint

For SharePoint, there are three options for offboarding a site and making them non-billable:

1. In Microsoft 365 admin center, remove the users access to all protected site collections

   Follow Microsoft's instructions on completing this, found here.

   If the protected site collection is no longer in selection, removing user access to the site collection will not be detected by Cove Backup Agent, therefore you need to add the site collection to the selection first

Or

2. In Microsoft 365 admin center, remove the SharePoint license from the user

Or

3. In Cove's Management Console, delete the SharePoint backup history for the every site collection the user has access to

Teams

For Teams, there are three options for offboarding a team and making them non-billable:

1. In Microsoft 365, remove the user from the list of owners for all protected teams

   Under the Team name, click More Options > Manage Team > Members, then change the user from Owner to Member

   If the protected Team is no longer in selection, removing user from the Team owners will not be detected by Cove Backup Agent, therefore you need to add the Team to the selection first

Or

2. In Microsoft 365 admin center, remove the Teams license from the user

Or

3. In Cove's Management Console delete the Teams backup history for the every team the user is an owner of

Offboard Protected Users

This is relevant only to protected Exchange and OneDrive users. Offboarding in this manner is not available for any user who also backs up SharePoint or Teams

1. Sign in to the Management Console using a SuperUser account. with Security Officer permissions
2. Click the domain name from the Cove Backup Dashboard to open the domain properties
3. Switch to the Protection Summary tab
4. Ensure you are viewing the Users tab of Protection Summary
5. Proceed to Offboard Single Protected User or Offboard Single or Multiple Protected Users as needed

Offboard Single Protected User

1. Search for the user you wish to offboard
2. Scroll to the far right-hand side of the user list and click three vertical dots to open the action menu

   

3. Select Offboard User
4. Confirm that you wish to proceed with offboarding by clicking Offboard 1 user.

   

Offboard Single or Multiple Protected Users

You can offboard one or multiple users to remove the users from billing.

1. Select the check boxes to the left of the users to offboard.
2. Open the Actions menu and click Offboard users (n)

   

3. Confirm that you wish to proceed with offboarding by clicking Offboard N users

   

   You can Export selected users if you wish to save the list or re-verify the users that have been offboarded

   If there is at least one shared mailbox in the list of selected users to be offboarded, you will see an additional panel that describes the possibility to retain the Exchange data. However, by deselecting Keep Exchange data for shared mailboxes you can delete shared mailbox totally.

4. After confirming offboarding, you can view the offboarding status of the users

   In the Information Panel, you can click Back up now to speed up offboarding process.

   Offboarding will be completed once the next backups of Exchange and OneDrive are done.