Forum Discussion
OneDrive / SharePoint data loss after nonprofit licence issue – recovery deadline in a few days
Hello,
I am posting here because I am facing a critical Microsoft 365 / OneDrive / SharePoint data loss situation for my nonprofit organisation, and I urgently need advice or escalation.
We had a Microsoft nonprofit/donation licence. It seems that this licence was stopped, removed, or changed, and I was not properly notified. Since then, I have lost access to my OneDrive / SharePoint data.
The local OneDrive folder still exists on my devices, but almost all files are only cloud placeholders. On an older Windows PC, when I try to copy files, I get:
0x8007016A: The cloud file provider is not running
The files show:
Availability status: Available when online
So the local devices do not contain the full files. The real data would need to be recovered from Microsoft / SharePoint / OneDrive recovery systems.
I was advised to assign a nonprofit Microsoft 365 Business Basic licence. I did this. After that, the SharePoint domain became reachable again, but OneDrive opened as an empty space. It looks like a new empty OneDrive was provisioned instead of restoring the previous content.
I also get an error when trying to access the organisation’s SharePoint / Teams-related area:
“An error occurred while retrieving the SharePoint URL for this channel.”
I opened two nonprofit support tickets:
Case 2607080040005145 – opened two days ago, no response / no callback
Case 2607090040007719 – opened yesterday, also nonprofit support
I have not been called back, and time is running out. From what I understand, if the OneDrive / SharePoint data was deleted or deprovisioned around mid-June, it may be permanently deleted in about 4 or 5 days. This would be catastrophic for my organisation, as the files include administrative documents, contracts, grants, educational projects, accounting files, communication files and archives.
I am now also trying to reach Data Protection / Data Recovery support, but I am posting here in case someone has experienced the same situation or knows how to escalate this properly.
What I urgently need is not a new empty OneDrive. I need the former OneDrive / SharePoint content to be restored, or at least for someone to confirm whether it is in deleted sites, archive, retention, recycle bins, secondary recycle bin, or another recovery layer.
Has anyone managed to recover data after a nonprofit licence stopped or after a OneDrive was reprovisioned empty?
Is there a specific team, escalation path, PowerShell recovery process, Microsoft 365 Archive, or SharePoint recovery route that I should request?
Any help would be extremely appreciated. I may only have a few days left before permanent deletion.
Kind regards,
A nonprofit Microsoft 365 admin
6 Replies
Hi, sounds a bit similar to me but no one seems interested to help properly. I dont think they can sort it as I keep being referred back to Non-Profit Contact by a human in an email to start the problem all over again and thats after its been escalated by them and that department has so say told him to send me back to non-profit contact to raise another support ticket all over again.
NO we received no notification
Hi Vinch and all i have also been trying for weeks to find a resolution to all my files for our charity which were on the onedrive. I finally got an answer from support which is not satisfactory at all. the following was the reply i had received from the tech helpdesk
I hope all is well!
Unfortunately, the escalation team confirmed that we can't do anything regarding the recovery.
We have reviewed your inquiry and confirmed that the subscription associated with your organization reached its expiration date and was subsequently deactivated and removed as part of the previously announced retirement of the Microsoft 365 Business Premium Grant and Office 365 E1 Grant for nonprofit organizations.
Microsoft communicated this change through official nonprofit program announcements and published guidance. In addition, notification communications were issued to the account administrator on file, including at the time of the retirement announcement and prior to subscription expiration.
As these grant offers are no longer available, organizations must transition to a supported nonprofit offer to continue using Microsoft services.
Available nonprofit offers
Eligible nonprofit organizations may access:
- Up to 300 Microsoft 365 Business Basic Nonprofit grant licenses
- Discounted nonprofit offers for Microsoft 365 Business Premium and Microsoft 365 Business
Standard
- Office 365 E1 through Enterprise Agreement for eligible organizations
- Additional nonprofit licensing options available through Microsoft's nonprofit catalog
To acquire a supported nonprofit subscription, sign in to the https://admin.microsoft.com/#/homepage using a Global or Billing
Administrator account. From the Billing section, review the nonprofit offers available to your organization and
complete the purchase process for the selected offer. When reviewing available offers, ensure you are using
the Microsoft Online Subscription Agreement (MOSA) billing account and access the Nonprofit section of the
catalog to view eligible nonprofit-priced subscriptions. For detailed purchasing guidance, refer to the
Microsoft Learn resources linked below.
Vinch222 the same happend to us. Suddenly we lost entire organisation data without any proper notification. SharePoint and OneDrive is gone. it happend on June, 15th. since then we're in communication with them but still no success. When i try to open SharePoint in browser, it says: 404 FILE NOT FOUND
We also payed for licences the same day it happend as we were adviced. Everything should be restored, but nothing happend.Hi Vinch222, treat this as urgent and open Microsoft 365 admin support immediately, because OneDrive and SharePoint retention windows matter. Do not reset OneDrive or unlink devices yet. Keep the older PC powered on and connected as little as possible until support advises, because placeholders may still reference cloud-only files. Ask support specifically to check tenant status, license removal date, retention state, deleted user/site state, and whether OneDrive or SharePoint restore is still available.
