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Is the Lowered Exchange Online Threshold the Positive Change Your Company Needed?
When you use Exchange Online, each mailbox depends on a license. If the license is taken away, mailbox access ends right away. That can cause trouble—people can’t get emails, calendar invites stop showing up, and important business data might be at risk.
But sometimes, licenses are removed by accident. Usually, this happens if you use group-based licensing and there’s a mistake with user groups or updates. When that happens, whole teams could lose access without warning.
Microsoft introduced “Delicensing Resiliency” to help with this. With this feature, when a license is taken away, the mailbox stays open and working as normal for 30 more days. This 30-day grace period gives IT teams time to fix mistakes and restore licenses if something went wrong.
What Has Changed?
Previously, only very large organizations—those with more than 10,000 Exchange Online licenses—could use the Delicensing Resiliency feature. Many organizations wanted the same protection but didn’t have enough licenses to qualify.
On July 15, 2025, Microsoft lowered the requirement. Now, if your organization has more than 5,000 non-trial Exchange Online licenses, you can use this feature too. This decision directly followed requests from companies who wanted extra safety for their mailboxes but were below the old threshold.
Why This Update Feels Positive
- Fewer disruptions. You get a safety net when things go wrong.
- Quick recovery. You have time to fix license mistakes, avoiding sudden data loss or mail stoppage.
- Broader reach. Now, thousands more organizations (not just the largest) can use this helpful tool.
- Peace of mind. A small change that gives a big sense of relief.
Step-by-Step: How Delicensing Resiliency Works
- Someone removes a user license (on purpose or by mistake).
- Instead of stopping access immediately, the mailbox remains active and fully usable for 30 days.
- IT is notified so they can check if the change was intentional.
- If it was an error, IT can restore the license quickly; if not, the mailbox will finally be deleted after the grace period ends.
- Additional notifications can get sent both to admins and users during this period, so important mailboxes don’t go unnoticed.
Important Details and Tips
- Applies to commercial cloud tenants with over 5,000 non-trial Exchange Online licenses.
- Enabling the feature requires a simple command using PowerShell:
Set-OrganizationConfig -DelayedDelicensingEnabled:$true
- Both admins and users receive notifications about the grace period and pending mailbox removal.
- Not available for trial or shared mailboxes. Mailboxes on “hold” also aren’t included.
- If you restore a license within the grace window, the mailbox continues as before—no loss of data or access.
Advantages For Everyday Management
- Grace periods match what OneDrive offers for deleted accounts, giving more consistency.
- IT teams can act before problems become disasters.
- Less manual mailbox recovery work, reducing stress.
This update means fewer interruptions for your teams, extra safety for your company’s emails, and a much friendlier experience when accidents happen. A small but meaningful improvement—even organizations with “just” 5,001 licenses now enjoy peace of mind and extra control over their digital workspace.