License Expiry

Office 365 Licence Due to Expire – Don’t Worry

If your Office 365 subscription ends due to expiration or because you decided to cancel it, you are still able to access your services, applications, and customer data! The data goes through multiple stages before the subscription is completely terminated, being aware of this progression will give make you more equipped to return to your subscription before it’s too late – or if you’re leaving Office 365, you can back up your data before it’s deleted.

Office 365 for Business: Subscription Lifecycle

This lifecycle shows what you can expect when your Office 365 for business subscription expires.

Note: Customer data, as defined in the Microsoft Online Service Terms, refers to all data, including all text, sound, or image files that are provided to Microsoft by, or on behalf of, the customer through the customer’s use of Office 365 services.

What are my options if my subscription is about to expire?

As the Office 365 admin, you’ll receive a series of notifications via email and in the Office 365 admin centre as your subscription nears its expiration date – while your subscription status is active you will have access as normal to your Office 365 services. Your options are:

Renew the subscription:

  • If auto renew is activated, then you don’t have to take any action. Your subscription will automatically renew on its auto-renew date. If your auto renew is turned off, you can always turn it on
  • If you're an Open Volume Licensing customer with a prepaid, one-year subscription, contact your partner to purchase a new product key for renewal.
  • If you have Office 365 Small Business, Office 365 Small Business Premium, or Office 365 Midsize Business, see more.

Let the subscription expire

  • If you're paying by credit card or invoice and you don't want to renew your subscription, turn auto renew off. Your subscription will expire on its expiration date.
  • If you're an Open Volume Licensing customer working with a partner, you can let your subscription expire by taking no action to renew
  • If you're a Small Business Premium customer, and you prepaid for Office 365 and activated it with a product key, you can let your subscription expire by taking no action to renew

Or you can Cancel before the subscription expires

For more information on Office 365 subscriptions, including what to do if you miss a subscription payment and what happens when your subscription ends, see the blog. 

Get Office 365 Savvy

If you would like to find out more about Office 365, either by talking to a consultant or by getting expert training, we are able to help. We work with a wide variety of people and pride ourselves on being able to provide support at your level. To find out more, please contact us.

Contact Us >

Visit us at the Business Software Showcase!

Many people who are new to Office 365 find it useful to speak with experts in the field; not just our consultants but other users who are going through, or have already gone through, the same issues that you are facing now. This is why we hold a yearly “open day”, with a range of guest speakers and networking events with our existing customers.

Register for the Showcase >


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