Accidental deletions can be a nightmare for users and especially for large scale organizations since bulk deletion of emails is often tricky to restore. It can lead to significant data loss and disruption in workflow. Fortunately, the mailbox data can still be recovered if users act swiftly and take the right steps to recover deleted office 365 mailbox. This article will provide a thorough guide about the types of deletion in Office 365 and a few causes behind the mailbox deletion. We’ll also outline some practical methods to restore deleted mailbox Office 365 and some preventive measures to avoid this in future. Read ahead to get a better understanding.
What is mailbox deletion in Office 365?
Mailbox deletion in Office 365 generally is often the accidental or intentional deletion of user’s mailbox for temporary or permanent basis. There are two ways of deleting mailboxes in Office 365, namely, Soft deletion and Hard deletion. We’ve given a detailed explanation of these two types below.
Soft deletion
When a mailbox is deleted by the user in Office 365, it is not immediately deleted from its source for a set period of time. This is known as Soft deletion, where users can recover deleted office 365 mailbox within 30 days from its default location of Azure Active Directory (Azure AD) as long as the file isn’t corrupted.
Hard deletion
When a user purges their mailbox from the Azure directory, then it’s known as Hard deletion. Hard deletion generally occurs when a user mailbox has been deleted for more than 30 days and the Office 365 account associated with the Microsoft Entra ID has been permanently removed, or when the retention policies expire which leads to the entire mailbox getting deleted.
Common reasons why Office 365 mailbox get deleted
Now that we’ve a better of what does mailbox deletion entails in in 365, let’s look at some of the most common reasons why Office 365 mailbox get deleted:
· User account deletion: Whenever an employee leaves an organization, the administrators delete that users account to reduce clutter and avoid privacy leaks. This results in the associated mailbox getting deleted as well.
· Mailbox removal: It is common for users to remove a mailbox while cleaning unused or inactive mailboxes or deleting mailboxes of former employees.
· Incorrect or expired mailbox retention policies: If the retention policies in Microsoft 365 aren’t properly configured or have expired, they can result in permanent deletion of mailbox data.
· Accidental deletion: Users might have accidentally deleted their Office 365 mailbox while deleting spam emails.
What are retention policies and are they helpful?
Microsoft 365 has unique retention policies and retention labels to allow organizations to manage and preserve data, ensuring compliance with regulatory requirements and policies. Retention policies are used to define for how long data is retained and what happens after the retention period, with options to retain, delete, or move data to an archive. These policies can be applied either to the entire organization or to specific users, groups, or locations. By implementing retention policies, organizations can ensure data management, compliance, and security in Office 365. Users can know more about Retention Policies in Office 365 for a clutter-free inbox and better storage management.
How to restore mailbox in Office 365?
There are certain conditions which should be fulfilled to restore deleted mailbox Office 365. Users must know the reason why their mailbox got deleted in order to restore the deleted mailbox. We’ve put together a few practical approaches to efficiently guide you through the o365 restore deleted mailbox process.
Method 1: Recover deleted data from Outlook Web Application
Deleted mailbox data can still be recovered from the deleted folder of Outlook Web Application within the 30-day retention period. You can recover deleted office 365 mailbox data easily from this folder before the given time limit. The steps to do so are given below:
· Login to your Outlook 365 account with the correct credentials.
· Navigate to the Deleted Items folder and choose the mailbox that you need to restore. Now, right-click on the desired emails that you wish to recover and select Restore from the list.
· The restored email will move back to its original location immediately.
· You can also recover items removed from the Deleted Items folder by clicking on the Restore items deleted from this folder option on the top of the list.
Method 2: Restore deleted mailbox Office 365 via Microsoft 365 Admin Center
Users can restore mailbox in Office 365 via the Microsoft 365 Admin Center by restoring the deleted users and re-assigning them all the permissions. The steps to do so are described in detail below:
· Log into your Microsoft 365 account using the correct credentials and navigate to the Admin Center.
· From the sidebar, click on Users and select Deleted Users from the options given in the dropdown menu.
· Check the user that you wish to restore and click on Restore user option.
· Wait for a few minutes and then verify if the account is available in the Active users section.
· Now re-assign the license and all the necessary permissions to the restored user and provide a secure password as well.
Method 3: Restore mailbox in Office 365 using PowerShell
One of the most prominent reasons of mailbox deletion is removal of user’s account from the Azure AD. Users can easily recover their deleted mailbox by restoring it in the Microsoft Admin Center via the PowerShell commandlet. We’ve given the detailed steps to perform this process below:
· Launch the PowerShell cmdlet on your system.
· Now the enter the command given below and enter the correct credentials of the deleted account.
Undo-SoftDeletedMailbox User account -WindowsLiveID User account -Password (Read-Host "Enter password" -AsSecureString
· Your account will be successfully restored once the command is processed.
Method 4: Verify Microsoft 365’s license validity
Most likely your user account may have been removed because your Microsoft 365 license has expired. Now, users have a retention period of 30 days in which they can recover all their data and move it to a secure location. However, once the 30-day retention period is over, they lose all the rights to their data and their entire mailbox data becomes inaccessible. Users are advised to renew their Microsoft 365 license with due time in order to maintain smooth workflow and avoid data loss.
What common issues arise during the Office 365 recover deleted mailbox process?
Recovering a deleted mailbox in Office 365 is a lengthy and tricky process if performed manually. Below we’ve discussed about some of the most common challenges incurred while trying to recover deleted Office 365 mailbox manually:
· Having multiple steps, the above-discussed methods are very lengthy and extremely time consuming which makes them unsuitable for large-scale organizations.
· Executing these methods require in-depth technical expertise to avoid mistakes. Novice users may find these methods challenging, risking errors and data damage. Expert knowledge is necessary for successful and safe implementation of these methods.
· Errors and mistakes while executing the above-discussed methods can result in loss of crucial data and severe data corruption.
Professional approach to restore mailbox in Office 365
Manual methods like the ones mentioned above are tricky to perform and carry substantial risks with them. Users can even lose their crucial data permanently if these methods aren’t performed carefully. It is strongly advised to back up essential data on a regular basis to mitigate the risk of data loss and corruption, and for maintaining a strategical workflow continuously.
Opting for a professional Office 365 backup tool is a wise choice for securely backing up your entire mailbox data to the location of your choice. Kernel Office 365 Backup and Restore backs up the entire data of your Office 365, On-premise and Online Exchange accounts and saves it into the file format of your choice including PST, MSG, EML, PDF, DOC, etc. Along with backing up the Shared, Archive and Public mailboxes, this allows the users to run multiple backup processes at the same time without an issue.
Conclusion
Mailbox deletion is a serious issue that needs to be dealt with swiftly to avoid data loss and unnecessary hinderance to workflow. Before attempting to restore mailbox office 365, users must know what exactly mailbox deletion is and why it happens. This blog goes in detail about the common reasons behind mailbox deletion in Office 365 and a few practical ways to deal with this issue. We’ve also mentioned a trusted Office 365 backup software to safely backup the entire mailbox data to avoid data loss.
