Microsoft deletes nonprofit customers' M365 data and says it can't get it back

Date:
Thu, 01 Oct 2026 20:20:00 +0000

Description:
Nonprofit organizations using the Microsoft 365 Business Premium Grant found their data had been deleted early after Microsoft advised they move to a different licensing plan

FULL STORY ======================================================================Copy link Facebook X Whatsapp Reddit Pinterest Flipboard Threads Email Share this article 0 Join the conversation Follow us Add us as a preferred source on Google Newsletter Subscribe to our newsletter Microsoft has admitted cloud-based M365 data owned by licensed nonprofits has been deleted in a license-switching cock-up Microsoft retired its 365 Business Premium Grant license, advising nonprofits to move to the Microsoft 365 Business Basic for free The deleted data cannot be retrieved Microsoft has admitted it accidentally deleted the data from an undisclosed number of nonprofits with retiring Microsoft 365 Business Premium Grant licenses. While advising the customers to switch to a different license for free and offering a retention and export window, the software behemoth somehow managed to lose their data, rather than retain it.

Worse, Microsoft has also admitted the lost data is irretrievable. So unless the organizations concerned had their own backups of the cloud-based data,
the situation is irreversible. All organizations with an expired Business Premium subscription are affected, but Microsoft has offered them a complementary concierge service to help get set up on their new Microsoft 365 Business Basic license assuming they havent switched to Google Workspace. Latest Videos From TechRadar Watch full video here: How has this happened? Microsoft 365 Business Premium Grant licenses were specifically for nonprofit organizations. It provided 10 free licenses for eligible organizations.

The announcement of their impending closure was made in early 2025. Any renewal on or after July 1 2025, would have been the last one. At the time, Microsoft issued an email to licensees: You may like Microsoft deleted one mans hacked OneDrive with 25 years of media This company wants to help universities get around Microsoft 365's extra costs as it moves away from unlimited cloud storage Microsoft sabotages its fix Windows 11 drive with a nasty OneDrive misfire

The Microsoft 365 Business Premium grant will be discontinued on your next renewal on or after July 1, 2025. Your licenses will expire on April 1, 2026. We will continue to provide up to 300 granted licenses of Microsoft 365 Business Basic and discounts of up to 75 percent on many Microsoft 365 offers to nonprofits, including Microsoft 365 Business Premium.

Once a decision was made, the license should have been migrated to a
Microsoft 365 Business Basic or Microsoft 365 Business Premium license, based on the demands of the organization concerned. Emails and documents should not have been affected. Are you a pro? Subscribe to our newsletter Sign up to the TechRadar Pro newsletter to get all the top news, opinion, features and guidance your business needs to succeed! Contact me with news and offers from other Future brands Receive email from us on behalf of our trusted partners
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Instead, data has been lost. Microsofts vague mea culpa According to reports
, Microsoft has admitted that data cannot be recovered and is similarly
unable to provide any list or spreadsheet or log of what was lost. This
leaves nonprofit organizations notably, those with low license requirements, so presumably operating on minimal funding without access to the data they had stored within the Microsoft 365 OneDrive cloud.

They will also be without emails, potentially including details concerning contracts, fundraising, and other critical information.

Microsoft has expressed regret and attempted to manage the situation by offering the affected organizations a specialist to assist in setting up a
new Microsoft 365 account. However, given the fact that the data has been lost, and there is no migration headache to endure, it's a good bet Google Workspace or even Zoho Workplace are stronger options. Follow TechRadar on Google News and add us as a preferred source to get our expert news, reviews, and opinion in your feeds.



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Link to news story: https://www.techradar.com/pro/microsoft-deletes-nonprofit-customers-m365-data- and-says-it-cant-get-it-back


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