Microsoft deletes nonprofit customers' M365 data irretrievably

Microsoft has acknowledged that it accidentally deleted data from an undisclosed number of nonprofit organizations that were using the Microsoft 365 Business Premium Grant licenses. This error occurred alongside the retirement of that license, during which the company advised users to migrate to the free Microsoft 365 Business Basic license. However, in the process, the company lost user data that can no longer be recovered.

This incident is particularly serious as Microsoft has stated that the deleted data is irretrievable. This means that unless the affected organizations had their own backups of the cloud-based data, there is no way to restore the lost information. The situation is further complicated for those organizations whose Business Premium subscriptions had expired, as they are directly impacted by this data loss.

## Why it matters The deletion of critical data for nonprofit organizations can have devastating consequences. Many of these organizations rely on the information stored in the cloud to operate and fulfill their missions. The lack of access to vital data could hinder their service capacity and ultimately impact the communities they serve.

## What we know Microsoft has recognized the error and indicated that the responsibility lies with them in managing licenses and data retention. The company offered a retention and export window to help users transition to the new license, but the fact that the lost information cannot be recovered raises serious questions about the reliability of their cloud services for such organizations.

## What remains unclear It has yet to be specified how many organizations have been affected by this data loss or what steps Microsoft will take to compensate the harmed entities. It also remains to be seen how this incident will impact the trust of nonprofit organizations in the Microsoft M365 platform.