When a user is deleted from Office 365, their OneDrive data is not immediately deleted. It is, by default, retained for 30 days before its permanently deleted. For most companies that is more than enough time to sort through the old files and move anything that the business sees as important enough to keep. But, occasionally, this is not long enough (an not just because the managers are too busy!) for example in an education setting were the majority of staff have 6 weeks leave in the summer (or sometimes longer) so its possible someone could leave and their data could be deleted in that time. The good news is it is possible to retain OneDrive data for longer than the default 30 days.

The solution

Firstly, login to https://admin.microsoft.com

Go to the SharePoint Admin Center

Choose Settings

Choose OneDrive Retention and change the value from the default of 30 to something more suitable for your organisation, maybe 60 or 90.

Click Save and your done!