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Posted on 09/28/2026 9:05:44 AM PDT by dayglored
Microsoft accidentally wiped some nonprofit customers' M365 data before their retention period expired – and now says it cannot tell them what disappeared, or even whether they lost anything.
The cockup followed Microsoft's retirement of its Microsoft 365 Business Premium grant, which gave eligible nonprofits ten free licenses for the productivity suite.
Microsoft announced in May 2025 that the grant would not renew after July 1 that year. It offered eligible nonprofits up to 300 free Microsoft 365 Business Basic licenses, alongside discounted pricing for plans including Business Premium.
The company urged customers to move users onto another nonprofit plan before cancellation to avoid disruption or data loss. Organizations could also export anything they did not intend to retain in Microsoft 365.
The problem arose after the subscriptions were deactivated. In an email to one affected customer seen by The Register, Microsoft admitted that, "due to an error," it had deleted remaining data before the retention and export window closed. Attempts to recover it had failed.
"We have now investigated the recovery options, but unfortunately, the data cannot be recovered," Microsoft said.
Redmond cannot determine what disappeared either. The company said it was "currently unable to provide a list showing which data may have been deleted or whether any data was deleted at all." It could say only that the problem involved expired Business Premium subscriptions.
Microsoft confirmed the premature deletion to The Register. "After the applicable notice periods concluded and subscriptions were terminated, an error resulted in remaining data, if any, being deleted before the retention period had ended," a spokesperson said. "The impacted content would have been data associated with a customer's expired M365 Business Premium subscription."
Microsoft did not say how many nonprofits were affected, how prematurely the deletion occurred, or what caused the error.
The company said it regretted the impact and was offering affected nonprofits a free "concierge service," a meeting with a Microsoft specialist to help set up a new Microsoft 365 environment and answer questions.
Useful if you need help building a shiny new environment. Less useful if what you really wanted was the data Microsoft deleted from the old one. ®
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Sorry about that. How about some nice clean data-free space?
Now, to be fair, Microsoft did warn them that they were going to delete the data at some point after the retention period expired.
They just deleted it before the retention period was up. What does this sound like.....?
“No worries, babe, I’ll pull out before.... oops, looks like I already did. Sorry about that...”
Somewhat related to “You will own nothing, and you will be happy.”
I like to own and control my own stuff. But, increasingly, big corporations get to do whatever they want with my stuff.
I have a standalone copy of Office 2024 that I paid over $400 for. I noticed that the batch file I use to prevent the “Backup this document” nagware banner doesn’t seem to work anymore.
If that stupid banner comes up even one more time, I’m installing LibreOffice. I’ve really had it.
If your data live only on "the cloud" ... they aren't your data.
Call China. I’m sure they have multiple copies..............
I have used LibreOffice for a decade now, not just at home, but including company work where others are using MS Office/365. Haven't run into any compatibility issues in a long time (years).
I wouldn't give MS a nickel for MS Office/365 these days.
I still use Office 2003. There is nothing wrong with it and it doesn’t have that indecipherable ribbon.
Backup, backup, backup.
The "3-2-1" Rule:
Sometimes I just want to set my own margins and just type a simple letter, personal or business without fussing about with preset columns or having my cursor thrown about and with issues every which way. Sometimes I just want type writer functionality then save as a pdf or word document. There is a hard learning curve for all the various controls and wonder presets with bothe Office and LibreOffice.
That's what the Windows app "WordPad" was for, and it was great.
Unfortunately Microsoft discontinued it in 2023. But if you can find a copy of the app on an old copy of Windows 11 or any copy of Win10, Win7, etc. it might still do the trick for you.
The later versions could save as Open Document format (.odt) too, in addition to .docx. Very handy.
Hahahahahaha! I was going to post almost exactly what you did..
LOL. They do have that reputation.
A better rule is out nothing on the cloud. If it is off your machine or network, it isn’t yours anymore.
“I have a standalone copy of Office 2024 that I paid over $400 for.”
I have a standalone copy of Office 2003 that I paid nothing for in 2002 when MS wanted our office to get a heads-up on what was going to be released. No ribbon!
I treat that disk like gold. (The disk actually IS gold - LOL!) When we’ve moved, it was in my carry-on. It’s in our safe. It has installed fine on all of my PCs, even on Windows 10.
See my Post 15.
“Sometimes I just want to set my own margins and just type a simple letter, personal or business without fussing about with preset columns or having my cursor thrown about”
Reading that, I am nostalgic for WordPerfect. I miss it almost as much as my cats at the Rainbow Bridge.
Who cares they are “nonprofits”. Screw them...they are just stealing tax payer money anyway.
I suspect you are my long-lost sister!
I like to own and control my own stuff. But, increasingly, big corporations get to do whatever they want with my stuff.
~~~
You basically never did own anything anyway. That’s why you have to sign end user license agreements.
I have to say though, I don’t miss having to make sure we were backing up our data. With everything being cloud based, that’s someone else’s problem.... until it becomes ours when someone deletes data and can’t figure out how it happened. Heh. Good job microsoft.
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