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.
M365, Entra ID, Google Password Manager Passkeys
I went into my tenant, opened the Entra ID Admin, and enabled passkeys (fido2) authentication. I want to use Google Password manager since it will work across al my devices/platforms (Windows, Mac, Android, iOS). I went into the security settings for Microsoft 365 account to add an authentication method. I am happy to say that "passkey" is listed as an option, so I created a new passkey in Google Chrome/Password Manager and named it after my userid in the tenant. To test it, I logged out and attempted to log in using the passkey. The option came up, but Microsoft complained it was not a valid key. I tried again stating that I would my phone for the key and scanned the QR code but my phone said there is no passkey I would need to create one. How do I solve this? BTW: I did add Google's AAGUID in the Entra admin and allowed it but that did not solve the issue.
Strange redirect when signing in - phishing?
I just restarted my Business Standard 365 license today and this afternoon got an email from email address removed for privacy reasons with the following content: But when I clicked on the 'Verify payment information' button I am redirected to a page with the following URL: https://admin.cloud.microsoft/Error/UnAuth?errorCode=100014 looking like this: This looks highly suspicious (Times New Roman font, URL with no top-level extension such as .com, unusual graphics). Is this legitimate or a phishing attempt? Now, when I try to login to admin.microsoft.com to check my account the same suspicious "Sign out and login with a different account" page pops up repeatedly.
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?
Not For Profit Licence suddenly disappeared and then deleted
Hi All Have a big issue. Have a not for profit account for our charity. Renewed licence earlier in the year and all was ok and working. Then a few days ago I had reports of not being able to access data. After much hunting I found the below. Seems account was suddenly and without warning disabled and then reported as deleted a few days later. What do I do? I desperately need to recover the files that were on the associated teams? Any help would be much appreciated
Vaihdoit uuteen puhelimeen. Authenticator ongelma
Vaihdoit uuteen puhelimeen. Microsoft Authenticator ei ole enää saatavilla vanhalla laitteellasi. Et voi kirjautua Microsoft 365 -työtilillesi, koska MFA-vahvistus vaaditaan. Sinulla ei ole pääsyä mihinkään vaihtoehtoiseen todennusmenetelmään. Tarvitset apua suomeksi, jos mahdollista.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 helpPlanning to Migrate OST Files to Microsoft 365 - Need Some Guidance Before I Start
Hey folks, I have a task coming up where I need to migrate OST files into Office 365 mailboxes. A few of the OST files I'm dealing with are orphaned or corrupted which is making me a bit nervous about the whole process. A couple of things I'm unsure about: How to handle OST files that are no longer linked to an active profile Whether corrupted OST files can still be migrated to Office 365 without major data loss Best way to verify data integrity after migration Haven't started yet and want to make sure I'm going in the right direction before I begin. Has anyone migrated corrupted or orphaned OST files to Office 365? What approach worked best for you?Unable to access our Microsoft Entra admin center
We cannot create a support request from the admin center because we cannot sign in Dear Microsoft Support Team, We are unable to access our Microsoft Entra admin center because even our administrator account, email address removed for privacy reasons, is being prompted for MFA, and we do not currently have access to the Microsoft Authenticator method required to complete the sign-in. As a result, we cannot access Entra ID / Microsoft 365 admin settings to reset MFA methods, issue a Temporary Access Pass, or re-register authentication methods for the affected users. Tenant/domain: itieurope.com Affected admin account: email address removed for privacy reasons Issue: MFA is required to sign in, but the Authenticator method is unavailable Impact: We are locked out of the tenant administration portal and cannot manage users or authentication methods We request assistance with one of the following recovery actions: Reset MFA methods for the administrator account email address removed for privacy reasons; or Enable re-registration of MFA for this account; or Provide a Temporary Access Pass or another Microsoft-approved recovery method so that we can regain administrative access to the tenant. We had force majeure, the only authenticator was on the phone, which was destroyed due to an unforeseen situation. (crashed) We are ready to verify domain ownership, provide billing information, tenant details, proof of identity, or any other information required to confirm that we are the legitimate owners/administrators of this Microsoft 365 tenant. Please escalate this as an urgent tenant lockout / admin access recovery issue. Kind regards, itieurope.com email address removed for privacy reasons
