Who's Performing Microsoft 365 License Audits For Their Clients?
If you’re an MSP or IT leader and aren't running these regularly, you might be leaving money on the table or letting your clients overpay by over 20% on average. Common quick wins we see all the time: Disabled user accounts that still hold active paid licenses. Inactive or dormant users that could easily be converted to free shared mailboxes. Over-licensed users who only need OWA/web access instead of full desktop suites. Paying for unassigned licenses sitting idle in the tenant. Doing a full, manual audit can feel tedious, but following a structured process makes it painless. If you want to run a complete audit via the Admin Center, PowerShell, or free automated tools, check out this comprehensive guide: https://www.gitbit.org/docs/microsoft-365-license-audit
Planning a Google Workspace to Microsoft 365 Migration? What Should You Consider?
Hi everyone, Has anyone recently migrated from Google Workspace to Microsoft 365? I’m interested in knowing what challenges you faced during the migration, especially around mailbox data, calendars, contacts, user mapping, or the final cutover process. For those planning the migration, what are the key things you recommend preparing before getting started? Would like to hear your experiences and suggestions.Has anyone migrated from one Google Workspace to another after a company merger?
Hi all, Our company recently went through a merger and we now have two separate Google Workspace accounts that need to be consolidated into one. I need to move everything across, emails, contacts, calendars and tasks, for all users without anything getting lost in the process. Honestly not sure where to begin. Google's native tools seem limited for something like this and I don't want to start without a solid plan. Has anyone gone through a similar consolidation? How did you handle it and is there anything you wish you had known before starting?
How much of your Microsoft 365 environment can you actually see at once?
Not how many users you have. Not how many sites, teams, apps or flows you have. How much of it can you actually see connected together? I've been working across Microsoft 365 environments for a while, and I kept running into the same thing. There is no shortage of information. If anything, there is probably too much of it. Users, groups, permissions, SharePoint, Teams, Power Apps, Power Automate, Power BI, Dataverse, OneDrive, Exchange, Intune, licensing, configuration... It's all there. But when you're actually trying to understand how everything fits together, it can be a different story. You open one blade. Find something. Open another. Cross-check it. Go back. Open something else. Before long, you're jumping between different parts of the tenant trying to build the bigger picture in your head. And if you're working with larger environments, that gets difficult pretty quickly. The information isn't necessarily missing. The relationships between the information are what can be difficult to see. That got me thinking about a slightly different question: Instead of "where do I find this information?" "Show me what's connected to this." That's where VisibleState started. Start anywhere. Follow the connections. Imagine starting with a single user. Instead of seeing that user simply as a record with a list of properties, imagine being able to explore the relationships around them: User → Groups → SharePoint → Teams → Power Apps → Power Automate → Power BI → Dataverse → OneDrive → Exchange → Intune Then the questions become different: What does this user have access to? Is that access direct or coming through a group? What resources are connected to them? What depends on something they're associated with? Which licenses are involved? Are there relationships that look unusual? If something changes, what else might be affected? Those questions aren't necessarily about finding another piece of information. They're about putting information that already exists into context. A report can tell you that something exists. A connected view helps you understand what it is connected to. Illustrative example below — not a real customer environment. I'm not suggesting Microsoft 365 doesn't already give us this information Quite the opposite. Microsoft 365 already gives administrators an incredible amount of information and tooling. The thing I've been thinking about is what happens when you want to look across those boundaries. Sometimes I don't want another export. I don't want another list. I don't necessarily want another dashboard. I want to start with something I'm looking at and ask: "What's connected to this?" And then keep following the trail. That's the idea I'm exploring with VisibleState. The interesting part is what happens when you change the viewpoint The same relationships can be useful for completely different reasons. For example: Administrators may want to understand access, permissions and dependencies. Security and governance teams may want to find unusual relationships or exceptions. Compliance teams may need to understand who can access something and why. People managing multiple environments may want a consistent way to understand what's there without rebuilding the picture manually every time. Leadership may not need to see the graph at all. They may simply want to know what's important, what's exposed and what could be affected. It's still the same underlying environment. You're just looking at it from a different angle. And that's where I think things get interesting. Where I'm at with it VisibleState started as something I was building to make my own work easier. I was spending a lot of time investigating environments, tracing access and putting information together for reports. The individual tasks weren't necessarily difficult. It was the jumping between different places and reconstructing the bigger picture that took the time. So I started building something that would let me approach the environment through the relationships instead. It's grown quite a bit from where it started, and I'm continuing to build it. I'm not posting this as a product launch, and I'm not looking for people to sign up. I'm genuinely interested in whether the problem I'm seeing is familiar to other people working with Microsoft 365. So I'm curious... If you could start with any object in your Microsoft 365 environment and immediately see what it's connected to, where would you start? Would it be: Users and access Groups and permissions SharePoint and Teams Power Apps, Power Automate, Power BI and Dataverse Licensing and resources Governance and unusual relationships Something completely different Maybe you've already got a good way of doing this. Maybe you still find yourself jumping between different services and piecing things together manually. Or maybe I'm looking at the problem from the wrong direction. What's the one relationship in your Microsoft 365 environment that you wish you could see instantly?
Unable to Access Admin Center - SMS and Authenticator Options Not Working for Account Recovery
I am currently unable to access the Microsoft 365 admin center because I cannot complete the account verification process. When I try to loggin to my account, the assistant only offers two options: using the Microsoft Authenticator app or receiving an SMS code. Unfortunately, I do not have access to the Authenticator app, and the system is not able to send me the SMS code either. This leaves me completely locked out of the admin panel. I have tried multiple times to use the SMS option, but I never receive the code. The recovery assistant keeps prompting me to use either the Authenticator or SMS, but neither method works. Because of this, I cannot regain access to the admin center. I have the correct password, but without multi-factor authentication (Authenticator or SMS recovery) I cannot access the Microsoft 365 admin center. Without access to the admin center, I cannot create or manage support requests directly from the admin portal. I also tried calling support by phone, but the AI does not understand what I am saying and does not transfer me to a human agent who can actually help me resolve the problem. I would appreciate any guidance on how to contact so a human for support or alternative ways to verify my identity and regain access to the Microsoft 365 admin portal. Thank you in advance for your help.Need to Restore PST Files to Office 365 Mailboxes - What's the Best Approach
Hey everyone, I have a task coming up where I need to restore several PST files back into Office 365 mailboxes. Haven't done this before at this scale and honestly not sure where to begin. I've looked at Microsoft's native import service through Purview but I have a few concerns: Some of the PST files are quite large — not sure how well it handles that I need to restore only specific folders for some users, not the entire PST I'm worried about data consistency after the restore Would prefer something that doesn't require too many admin roles or complex setup For those who have done PST to Office 365 restores — what approach worked best for you? Any tools, tips, or things to watch out for that you wish you knew before starting?Cost Savings In Microsoft 365
Long story short, I had a client say, "We have more M365 licensed users than employees. Please help us find them." It took me about a week to find all the waste (first time always takes forever). Now I've run the same steps for a dozen other clients (takes less than an hour now). On average, I've been able to save clients 22% of their budget. Thought I'd share exactly how I do it. There are 5 areas of waste in Microsoft 365: Remove licenses from disabled users. Remove licenses from inactive users. Downgrade licenses on over-licensed users. Stop paying for unassigned licenses. Redefine the license terms. NOTE: I have the steps using the admin center, PowerShell, and a third-party app, but it's too long to re-post in Reddit. Go to Microsoft 365 License Audit to see all the steps. Find Disabled Users Log in to the Microsoft 365 admin center. Users > Active Users > Export > Continue. Open the spreadsheet. In the Home Ribbon, click Sort & Filter > Filter Click the dropdown in the Licensed column > uncheck Unlicensed > click OK Click the dropdown in the Block credential column > uncheck FALSE > click OK. Find Inactive Users NOTE: You need to either have a Microsoft Entra P1 license or use a third-party app to get this data. Open Microsoft Entra Admin Center Users > Manage view > Edit columns. Remove, replace, or add so the only columns you can see are: Display name, User principal name, User type, Identities, Assign licenses, and Last interactive sign-in time. Click Save. Click Download users > Start bulk operation Wait for the success pop-up message to appear, then click the notification bell at the top of the page. Under the notifications menu, click Success!, and then select the [report name]. Open the downloaded spreadsheet. Click Sort & Filter > Filter to enable the column filters. Click the drop-down in the assignedLicenses column. Uncheck any empty options, i.e., []. Click OK. Click the drop-down in the signInActivity column. Click Sort A to Z. Any users who have an empty signInActivity or a sign-in that was over 30 days ago can be safely disabled, and the license removed after the data is properly secured. Find Downgradable Users Review the report located on the website, then click Export. Open the CSV in Excel. Next, download the Microsoft 365 apps spreadsheet by going back to Reports > Usage and clicking View More located under “Active users - Microsoft 365 Apps” Review the report and click Export. You can start by deleting everyone that you’ve already determined hasn’t logged on or is currently disabled. Add the filter by clicking Sort & Filter in the home ribbon > Filter. Add a column for Current Licenses. Copy the licenses from the How To Use The Admin Center To Find Inactive Users spreadsheet you downloaded earlier into the new column. Be sure to align the user names in both spreadsheets. Add a column for Microsoft 365 Apps. Copy the Last Activity Date column from the Pro Plus Usage report you downloaded above in step 7 into the Office 365 app usage spreadsheet you’ve been using. Be sure to align the new data with the appropriate users in the Office 365 app usage report. For each of the following columns, click the drop-down next to the column name and filter out any logins that have happened in the last month. OneDrive Last Activity Date SharePoint Last Activity Date Skype For Business Last Activity Date Yammer Last Activity Date Team’s Last Activity Date Microsoft 365 Apps The users who have not been filtered out are excellent candidates for Exchange Online-only licenses. You may want to double-check their usage of other apps before making any license changes on their accounts. Find Unassigned Licenses Open the Microsoft 365 admin center. Click Show All > Billing > Licenses. On that webpage, you’ll see a list of all your licenses in your organization, along with a column labeled “Available Licenses”. Any number above 0 in the Available Licenses column is typically safe to remove from your organization with two caveats. Some licenses aren’t assigned to users through the Microsoft 365 admin center. NOTE: Some licenses are consumed as they are used. For example, additional storage licenses for SharePoint Online may show as available, but removing them will decrease the amount of free space available in SharePoint Online and possibly cause a disruption to SharePoint Online usage. Redefine The License Terms Microsoft adjusted its pricing model, charging different rates for the same license based on commitment terms, billing frequency, or sector-specific eligibility. The subscription length Billing Frequency Go to the Microsoft 365 admin center Click Billing > Licenses > Select the license you want to review. Click ellipsis (…) next to the subscription > Manage subscription settings. You can view the billing settings right on this page.
Extreamly frustrated that I cannot get help for a serious problem
What the devil do I have to do to get help with a serious problem with the cloud for our non-profit business account for our small charity. I have 'lost' sight of a large number of documents from the cloud since we had to start paying for our subscription. After many chats with ai and emails and the problem being escalated I have now been told to go back to where I started at Non-profit support and put a support ticket in. Doesnt matter what machine I use, what browser I use, what network I use, I cannot get past the submit form page and keep getting an error message - this has been going on for weeks now. Ive tried ringing and the call keeps dropping while on hold - no one, no-one will call me about the problem and no one seems interested in dealing with the problem and its not just affecting me on our system either. Please will someone tell me how to get to a human for support without using an AI help system,Microsoft 365 Data Protection- TrackingID#2607020040005775 - HELP
Hello Microsoft 365 Data Protection I don't know what else to do some I am posting on the forum, Microsoft 365 Data Protection is not replying to my emails and the phone system is not working when I call (0)800 167 344. 8 Days no support from Microsoft 365 Data Protection - TrackingID#2607020040005775. Cant login to Admin Centre, the MFA is not working.... Need help
