Stuck on how to deal with One Drive chat files with terminated user

[Robin Nilsson]

First time a major Teams user has left. Her sign in is blocked, but we haven't deleted her yet. I know in admin I can 'create link to files', which shares all her one drive files with me. And I know if I start the delete from the Office365 admin, it will ask if I want to give control over to someone else like their manager.

I know in that way we can give control of her regular working files to someone else, or download them somewhere...

But for files she shared during chat, how will those chats look after she is deleted? Someone new may then own the files, but will the people on the 'other side' of the chat see X instead of files? Or will they see a chat with 'unknown user' and still see the files since they're still shared?

What's the best way to deal with chat files?

[#2 · Accepted solution]

They will see unknown user eventually and files as long as the files aren't moved. Once moved it breaks the sharing links so the files will still show but they will just give 404 error since those files don't sync technically with anything.

I've made some suggestions that they need to revamp that files tab to just link to users Shared views so you can see files dynamically based on sharing status because if you remove a file even today it doesn't go away.

So essentially you would need to set preservation policies, but also users need to get out of the habit of using files in chat are permanent storage of any meaning and use it as a temporary transition or collaboration and move permanent stuff to the Team or SharePoint locations.

[#3]

Thanks for clarifying my thinking. Your point about chat files not being a permanent storage is a good one. We haven’t formally trained yet on chat file storage, so I will make sure to add this to my training team posts.