// MICROSOFT 365 SUPPORT
Transferring Microsoft 365 when the owner leaves the company
The person who set Microsoft 365 up is retiring, selling up, or moving on — and their login is the one everything hangs off. It is the administrator, it is the billing contact, it is very possibly the only account that can add or remove anyone else, and the code that proves it is them arrives on their personal phone. Handled in the right order this is a morning’s work. Handled in the wrong order, or after they have gone, it is how a business ends up locked out of its own email. Here is what that account actually holds, the order to move it in, and the two mistakes to avoid. Rated 4.9 on Google.
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/01 — WHAT THE ACCOUNT HOLDS
Everything that quietly lives in the owner’s login
A Microsoft 365 account that was created by the person who set the business up is rarely just a mailbox. Over the years it accumulates roles that nobody wrote down, and three of them depend on a phone that is about to walk out of the door.
- The Global Administrator role. The power to add and remove people, reset passwords, change settings, and hand out every other role. Very often it is the only account that has it.
- The billing relationship. The subscription is paid from a card or an account in someone’s name, and the renewal notices go to their address.
- The domain. Your email address ends in your company’s name because that domain was verified from this account, and the login to the company that registers the domain is often the owner’s personal one.
- The second factor. The authenticator app or the text-message code that proves it is really them lands on their personal phone. Every one of the powers above is behind it.
- Years of business email, a OneDrive full of company files, and ownership of the Teams, groups and SharePoint sites the office runs on.
None of that is a problem while they are still here and still answering their phone. The whole job is to move it before that stops being true.
/02 — THE ORDER
The handover, in the order that cannot lock you out
The sequence matters more than any single step. Done in this order, at no point is there only one person who can get in.
- Make a second Global Administrator first. Before anything else, a real, named person who is staying gets the Global Administrator role, sets up their own second factor on their own phone, and signs in to prove it works. Alongside it, keep an emergency admin account whose details are written down and stored somewhere safe — a sealed envelope in the safe is not old-fashioned, it is exactly right — for the day both phones are lost.
- Move the billing. In the admin centre’s billing area, add the new person as a billing administrator and change the payment method and the contact that renewal notices go to. The exact screens move about; the principle does not.
- Secure the domain. Find out who holds the login for the company that registers your domain, and make sure it is the business, with a recovery address that is not the leaver’s personal one. Losing the domain login is the one mistake that cannot be undone from inside Microsoft 365.
- Check nothing else routes through their phone. Recovery phone numbers on the tenant, the second factor on any shared accounts, the alerts Microsoft sends when something is wrong.
- Write down the licences. What is paid for, who has what, and when it renews. Ten minutes now saves an argument later.
- Only then deal with the leaver’s own account. Section 03.
/03 — THE MAILBOX AND THE FILES
What to do with their email, their OneDrive and the things they own
Once the powers have moved, the leaver’s own account can be dealt with calmly, and the guiding rule is: do not delete it until everything in it has somewhere else to be.
- The mailbox. The usual answer is to convert it to a shared mailbox. The years of email stay searchable, chosen people can read it and reply from the address, it no longer needs a licence, and nobody has to know the leaver’s password. Forwarding new mail to a colleague, with an automatic reply saying who now looks after what, covers the transition.
- Their OneDrive. Anything in it that belongs to the business moves to a shared location — a SharePoint library or a Teams channel — before the account goes. Microsoft keeps a departed user’s OneDrive reachable to an administrator for a limited period after the account is deleted, and how long is set by policy, so treat that as a safety net rather than a plan.
- Ownership of Teams, groups and sites. Anything the leaver owned needs a new owner named, or the office will discover one day that nobody can add a member to the team it works in.
- The address itself. Customers will keep writing to it for years. Keep it alive as the shared mailbox, or as an alias on whoever inherits the role.
Then, and only then, remove the licence and the account.
/04 — THE TWO MISTAKES
The two ways this locks a business out, and what to do if it already has
Almost every locked-out business we meet made one of two mistakes, and both are made with good intentions.
- Removing the only administrator before making another. Someone tidies up the leaver’s account on their last day, and with it goes the only login that can create an administrator. Nobody notices until the next time someone needs adding or a password resetting.
- Leaving the second factor on a phone that has gone. The account still exists, the password is known, and every sign-in stops at a code that is being sent to a phone the business no longer has. We have written this one up on its own, because it is that common.
If it has already happened, do not panic and do not start guessing at recovery options that could make it worse. First, ask the leaver. Most people will happily spend twenty minutes on the phone doing a handover they did not realise was needed. If they cannot be reached, or the parting was not friendly, Microsoft has a process for a business that can prove it owns the domain to regain control of its tenant. It works, it involves paperwork and patience rather than a quick fix, and it is much easier with someone who has been through it before. If a previous IT provider holds the keys instead of a former owner, that is a related problem we have also written up.
/05 — WHAT WE DO, AND WHAT WE DON’T
The technical handover is our job; the sale is not
We do the whole technical side of this, usually in one or two remote sessions with whoever is taking over: the new administrator and the emergency account, the billing contact, the domain check, the second factor moved to the right phones, the mailbox converted, the files moved to shared places, the ownership of teams and sites reassigned, and a one-page record of what is licensed and who holds what. When the leaver is still around we bring them into the session so nothing depends on a password being read out. When they are not, we work the recovery route with you.
What we do not do is advise on the sale, the shareholding, the employment side or the contracts — who is entitled to what, what must be kept for how long, what the leaver may take with them. Those are for your solicitor or your accountant, and we will happily work alongside them. Our job is that when the answer comes back, the systems are ready to do what it says.
If you would like Microsoft 365 looked after properly afterwards rather than left in one person’s name again, we do that too, per user, without a contract. The first conversation is free either way.
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// GOOD QUESTIONS
Frequently asked
Can we keep the leaver’s email address?
Yes, and you almost certainly should — customers will keep writing to it for years. The usual route is to convert the mailbox to a shared mailbox, which keeps all the old email searchable, lets chosen staff read and reply from the address, and no longer needs a licence. An alias on a colleague’s mailbox does the same for the address alone.
What happens to their OneDrive files?
Move anything that belongs to the business into a shared location before the account is removed. Microsoft keeps a departed user’s OneDrive reachable to an administrator for a limited period afterwards, set by policy, but that is a safety net rather than a plan. Once the window closes the files are gone.
They have already left, and they had the only administrator login
Ask them first; most people will do a twenty-minute handover once they realise it is needed. If they cannot be reached, Microsoft has a process for a business that can prove it owns the domain to regain control of its tenant. It involves paperwork and patience rather than a quick fix, and it goes more smoothly with someone who has done it before.
Do we lose the licences or the subscription?
No. The subscription belongs to the organisation’s tenant, not to the person, and it carries on. What has to change is who administers it and who pays for it — the billing contact and payment method — so the renewal does not fail on a card that has been cancelled.
Can the new owner just use the old login?
They can, and it is the wrong answer. The second factor is on the old owner’s phone, the password is now known to someone outside the business, and everything done under that login is recorded as the old owner doing it. Give the new person their own account with the administrator role and their own second factor, and retire the old one properly.
Owner leaving and Microsoft 365 in their name?
We do the technical handover for businesses across Bournemouth, Poole and Dorset — roles, billing, mailbox, files and sign-in — usually remotely. Call 01202 775566.
01202 775566 · help@365techies.co.uk · MON–FRI 9AM–5PM