Delete a user from your organization

Looking for how to delete your own Microsoft 365 user account that you use at work or school? Contact the technical support at your work or university to do these steps for you.

What you need to know about deleting users

• Only people who have Microsoft 365 global admin or User management permissions for the business or school can delete user accounts.
• You have 30 days to restore the account before the user’s data is permanently deleted.
• If you want to keep the user’s OneDrive data, move it to a different location. You can even move the data up to 30 days after deleting the account. See Get access to and back up a former user’s data. You don’t need to move their SharePoint files; you’ll still have access to them.
• If you want to keep the user’s email, BEFORE you delete the account, move the email to a different location. If you’ve already deleted the account: if it’s been less than 30 days you can restore it, then move the email data, then delete the account. See Get access to and back up a former user’s data.
• If you have an Enterprise subscription like Office 365 Enterprise E3, you can preserve the mailbox data of a deleted user account by turning it into an inactive mailbox. To learn more, see Manage inactive mailboxes in Exchange Online.

Global admin: Delete a user, stop paying for their license, and choose what to do with their email and OneDrive content

If you are a global administrator, when you delete a user you can also give another user access to their email, and choose what to do with their OneDrive content.

Things to consider.

Before you begin, think about what you want to do with the user’s email and OneDrive content, and whether you want to keep the license or stop paying for it.

Item	Description
Product licenses	You can remove the license from the user and remove it from your subscriptions to stop paying for that license. If you select this option, the license will be removed automatically from your subscriptions. You can’t remove the license if you bought it through a Partner or volume licensing. If you’re paying for an annual plan or if you’re in the middle of a billing cycle, you won’t be able to remove the license from your subscription until your commitment is completed.
OneDrive content	If the user saved their files to OneDrive, you can give another user access to these files. You’ll need to move the files you want to keep within the retention period that is set for OneDrive files. By default, the retention period is 30 days. If you don’t move the files within the retention period after deleting the user, the OneDrive content will be permanently deleted. To increase the number of days that you retain OneDrive files for deleted accounts, see Set the OneDrive retention for deleted users. Important! If the deleted user used a personal computer to download files from SharePoint and OneDrive, there’s no way for you to wipe those files they stored on their computer. They will continue to have access to any files that were synced from OneDrive.
Email	Giving another user access to the deleted user’s email will convert the deleted user’s mailbox to a shared mailbox. The new mailbox owner can then access the mailbox and monitor for new email. You’ll also have the following options: Change the display name — We recommend changing the display name so that it will be easy to identify the shared mailbox in the Active users list. Turn on automatic replies — We’ve already written a polite automatic reply for you. You can send different automatic replies to people within your organization and people from outside your organization. Clean up aliases — Aliases are additional email addresses for users. Some organizations don’t use them, so if you don’t have any you don’t need to do anything else here. If the user does have aliases, we recommend removing them so that you can reuse those email addresses. Otherwise, you can’t reuse those email addresses until the retention period for deleted mailboxes has passed. By default, a deleted mailbox is recoverable for 30 days. For more information, see Delete or restore user mailboxes in Exchange Online.
Active Directory	If your business uses Active Directory that is synchronizing with Azure AD, you need to delete the user account from Active Directory. You can’t do it through Office 365. For instructions, see Delete a User Account.

Get started

Since the guided experience walks through the steps to delete a user, here’s how to get started.

1. In the admin center, go to the Users >Active users page.

1. In the admin center, go to the Users >Active users page.

1. In the admin center, go to the Users >Active users page.

1. Select the user that you want to delete, and then select Delete user.

User management admin: Delete one or more users from Office 365

Don’t delete a user’s account if you’ve converted it to a shared mailbox or if you’ve set up email forwarding on the account. Those functions still need the account. A shared mailbox doesn’t require a license. If you’ve converted the account to a shared mailbox you can Stop paying for the license. If you’ve set up email forwarding on the account, you can’t remove the license. Doing so will stop email forwarding and deactivate the mailbox.

In the admin center, go to the Users > Active users page.

Select the names of the users that you want to delete, select More options (. ), and then choose Delete user.

Although you deleted the user’s account, you’re still paying for the license. See the next procedure to stop paying for the license. Or, you can assign the license to another user. It won’t be assigned to someone automatically.

In the admin center, go to the Users > Active users page.

Select the names of the users that you want to delete, and in the Bulk actions pane, choose Delete users.

Although you deleted the user’s account, you’re still paying for the license. See the next procedure to stop paying for the license. Or, you can assign the license to another user. It won’t be assigned to someone automatically.

In the admin center, go to the Users > Active users page.

Select the names of the users that you want to delete, and in the Bulk actions pane, choose Delete users.

Although you deleted the user’s account, you’re still paying for the license. See the next procedure to stop paying for the license. Or, you can assign the license to another user. It won’t be assigned to someone automatically.

Stop paying for the license

Reducing the number of licenses is a separate step that can only be performed by the global admin or billing admin.

In the admin center, go to the Billing > Your products page. If you don’t see this option, you aren’t a global admin or billing admin, and can’t do this step.

On the Products tab, select the subscription that you want to remove licenses for.

On the subscription details page, select Remove licenses.

In the Remove licenses pane, under New quantity, in the Total licenses box, enter the total number of licenses that you want for this subscription. For example, if you have 100 licenses and you want to remove five of them, enter 95.

Select Save.

Later when you go through the steps to add another person to your business, you’ll be prompted to buy a license at the same time, with just one step!

In the admin center, go to the Billing > Subscriptions page. If you don’t see this option, you aren’t a global admin or billing admin, and can’t do this step.

Select the subscription (if you have more than one) and then select Add/Remove licenses to delete the license so you don’t pay for it until you hire another person.

Later when you go through the steps to add another person to your business, you’ll be prompted to buy a license at the same time, with just one step!

In the admin center, go to the Billing > Subscriptions page. If you don’t see this option, you aren’t a global admin or billing admin, and can’t do this step.

Select the subscription (if you have more than one) and then select Add/Remove licenses to delete the license so you don’t pay for it until you hire another person.

Later when you go through the steps to add another person to your business, you’ll be prompted to buy a license at the same time, with just one step!

Delete many users at the same time

See the Remove-MsolUser PowerShell cmdlet.

Fix issues with deleting a user

Here are the most common issues people encounter when deleting a user:

You get an error message along the lines of «User cannot be deleted. Please try again later.» Double-check whether the account has email forwarding set up on it, or it’s been converted to a shared mailbox. Both of these will cause that error. Don’t delete the account if it has email forwarding or it’s been converted to a shared mailbox.

You don’t have the appropriate permissions to delete a user. Only people who are Microsoft 365 global admins or user management admins can delete users. Usually this is the technical support in your school or business.

You delete the user but their name continues appear in your global address book. This happens when a business is using Active Directory. You must delete the users account from Active Directory. For instructions, see Delete a User Account.

Do you want to delete Microsoft 365 from your computer? Go to Cancel your subscription.

Related articles

Delete a User Account: Use these instructions if your business uses Active Directory that is synchronizing with Azure AD. You can’t do it through Office 365.

Add or remove accounts on your PC

This article describes how to add or remove accounts on your PC. Having different accounts on a shared PC lets multiple people use the same device, all while giving everyone their own sign-in info, plus access to their own files, browser favorites, and desktop settings.

In addition, if you use the same PC for personal projects and work or school, you may want to add different accounts to your PC.

Note: If you have a new device, you may see an account named «defaultuser0″—this account is inactive and it won’t hurt your device or give anyone else access. If you want to remove it, you can restart your device and then sign in again.

Add people to a home PC

The best way to add someone to your PC is to have them sign in with a Microsoft account. Learn more about Microsoft accounts in Sign in with a Microsoft account.

On Windows 10 Home and Windows 10 Professional editions:

Select Start > Settings > Accounts > Family & other users.

Under Other users, select Add someone else to this PC.

Enter that person’s Microsoft account information and follow the prompts.

If you need to remove that person’s sign-in information from your PC:

Select Start > Settings > Accounts > Family & o ther users.

Select the person’s name or email address, then select Remove. Note that this will not delete the person’s Microsoft account, it will just remove their sign-in info from your PC.

Add people to a work or school PC

The best approach is for everyone who shares a PC at work or school to have their own Microsoft account. Learn more about Microsoft accounts in Sign in with a Microsoft account.

To add someone with an existing Microsoft account:

Select Start > Settings > Accounts > Other users (in some Windows editions, it may be labeled as Other people or Family & other users).

Under Work or school users, select Add a work or school user.

Enter that person’s user account, select the account type, and then select Add.

If you need to remove that person’s sign-in information from your PC:

Select Start > Settings > Accounts > O ther users.

Select the person’s name or email address, then select Remove.

Read the disclosure and select Delete account and data. Note that this will not delete the person’s Microsoft account, but it will remove their sign-in info and account data from your PC.

Add work or school accounts to your PC

If you’re using the same PC for both personal and school or business work, you may want to add various accounts to your PC to make it easier for you to get to the files, apps, and information associated with each account. When you access work or school, you’ll be connected to your organization’s domain and have access to its resources.

To add another account to your PC:

Select Start > Settings > Accounts > Access work or school .

Select Connect, then follow the prompts to add the accounts.

If you need to remove an account from your PC:

Select Start > Settings > Accounts > Access work or school .

Select the account you wish to remove, then select Disconnect.

Select Yes to confirm your actions. Note that this will not delete the account entirely, it will just remove access from your PC

Note: If an account is either the only account on the PC or the primary account on the PC, it can’t be removed.

Add accounts used by apps

To make signing in to your accounts easier and faster, you may want to add accounts for different apps.

To add an account used by apps to your PC:

Select Start > Settings > Accounts > Email & accounts .

To add an account used by email. calendar, or contacts, select Add an account under Accounts used by email, calendar, and contacts. For other apps, select Add a Microsoft account or Add a work or school account.

Follow the prompts to add the account.

To remove an account used by apps from your PC:

Select Start > Settings > Accounts > Email & accounts .

Select the account you wish to remove, then select Remove.

Select Yes to confirm your actions.

Add people to a family group

If you’ve added your family’s Microsoft accounts to your PC, you can set them up as a Microsoft family. It’s a free service that helps families stay connected and keep kids safer on Windows 10 and Xbox One devices, along with Android devices running Microsoft Launcher.

Note: If you have trouble adding a Microsoft account, see Microsoft account FAQ.