Microsoft 365 backup: what you lose after 14, 30 and 93 days

Between 14 and 93 days, depending on the case. These are the defaults published by Microsoft and they apply to anyone without their own copy.

Once the limit has passed, there is no button that brings the data back.

Microsoft is responsible for the infrastructure; the company is responsible for the data. This is the shared responsibility model Microsoft itself publishes.

• Microsoft: data centres, servers, availability and failures of its own hardware.
• The company: email, documents, Teams and SharePoint; creating and removing accounts; passwords, MFA and permissions; laptops and phones that connect to the service.

A failed disk in a data centre is Microsoft's problem. A lost folder is yours. The proof: Microsoft sells Microsoft 365 Backup separately, on a pay-as-you-go basis.

The former employee with the client's proposal

Someone leaves, the licence is released, the account is deleted. Months later, a client asks for a document that only existed in that mailbox or that OneDrive. The mailbox can only be recovered for 30 days; OneDrive has 30 days of retention by default, plus 93 days in the site collection recycle bin; recovering it requires admin commands. Without a copy, the loss is permanent within a few weeks.

Ransomware that climbs into the cloud

The infected laptop encrypts local documents. OneDrive does its job and replicates the encrypted versions to the cloud. You can roll back, but only up to 30 days and across the entire account, also wiping the good work done in the meantime. In a shared SharePoint library, the damage hits everyone who accesses it.

The request that arrives too late

A folder deleted in spring and searched for in autumn. An employee who deletes data on purpose and empties the recycle bin. An audit asking for the state of an archive on a date years ago. Only an independent copy can answer here.

1. Full scope: Exchange email, calendars and contacts, OneDrive, SharePoint and Teams, stored outside the company's tenant.
2. Frequency: at least one copy a day, with version history.
3. Your retention: one year or more, instead of Microsoft's 14, 30 or 93 days.
4. Immutable copy: impossible to delete during retention, even with a compromised administrator account.
5. Leaver rule: before removing an account, archive or convert the mailbox and confirm the copy exists.
6. Mandatory MFA: starting with administrators; read our guide to MFA for businesses.
7. The right plan: security features change with the licence; see which Microsoft 365 licence protects an SME.
8. Proof of restore: a quarterly test with a report, as described in the 30-minute restore drill.

In a public tender won by DataRoad, the Union of Parishes of Massamá and Monte Abraão migrated a total of 50 mailboxes to Exchange Online. Messages, folders and associated data arrived intact. The work covered planning, the new Outlook configuration on computers and phones and final validation.

Migration is the right moment to design the backup: the inventory of data, users and destination is already done. Skipping that step means accepting Microsoft's time limits.

There are also clients whose email is not on Microsoft. PTR Pharma Consulting has its website and email hosted on DataRoad servers, under an annual IT Unlimited contract. The requirement is the same: identify who owns the copy, where it is and the date of the last test.

It includes an external copy, agreed retention, failure monitoring and rehearsed restores. Under an IT Unlimited contract it is active from day one, through our managed backup solution, and works hand in hand with Microsoft 365 administration: licences, MFA and leaver processes.

• On-site support On IT Unlimited Premium, reinstalling a laptop or attending an on-premises recovery does not generate billed call-outs.
• Terms One-year contract, renewed automatically, no lock-in.
• Track record In 11 years, DataRoad has never suffered a security incident.

In 5 working days we review your Microsoft 365, flag what sits outside any copy and deliver in writing the real recovery times and what to fix. Request a no-commitment proposal.

More than 10 workstations · support contract · remote, on-site and telephone support. Call +351 211 459 950 * or write to sales@dataroad.pt.

*Call to a Portuguese landline.

• Shared responsibility model (Microsoft Learn)
• Deleted item retention in Exchange Online
• Delete and restore mailboxes
• Retention and deletion in OneDrive
• Site collection recycle bin
• Restore your OneDrive
• Microsoft 365 Backup pricing