Deleting Microsoft 365 User

Notating some commands I use for deleting a user in Microsoft 365. This is generally done by connecting to it using Connect-MSOnline first.

I will provide notes on how to do that in a future post.

One thing that I’ve learned about Microsoft 365 licensing is the tenant owns a quantity of the licensing they’ve purchased. The number of consumed licenses increases/decreases as users are added/removed. There is no affect on the total quanitity of licensing owned by the organization when a user is removed from a tenant portal. I note this and will note it in another post that discusses AccountSkus when it’s created. There is no need to unset the license before hand.

Below is the basic command used to remove the user from the portal and send the object to the Recycle Bin. Confirmation will be required. But, the default for this is Y or Yes.

Remove-MsolUser -UserPrincipalName jdoe@example.com

Below is the output when the command above is entered.

Remove-MsolUser -UserPrincipalName jdoe@example.com

Confirm
Continue with this operation?
[Y] Yes  [N] No  [S] Suspend  [?] Help (default is "Y"): y

This command can be run if deletion is our decision. This will send the user object to the Recycle Bin without being prompted for confirmation.

Remove-MsolUser -UserPrincipalName jdoe@example.com -Force

Note that this will send a user to the Recycle Bin. Both of these options will. But, what if permanent deltion is required immediately.

Permanent Deletion

I haven’t found a way to do this with two commands just yet. Both sections here can be used in conjunction with each other. Removing a user object using the Remove-MsolUser Cmdlet will send the object to the Recycle Bin as discussed.

But, permanent deletion is a possibility AFTER the user object is sent to the Recycle Bin. To do this, run the following command. Note that without the -Force flag present. The command will prompt for confirmation. Use it as long as you’re sure its what you want. This will delete the user object or account permanently from the Microsoft 365 tenant.

Remove-MsolUser -UserPrincipalName jdoe@example.com -RemoveFromRecycleBin

This should conclude what I have for my notes so far. If I need to add more, I’ll add them to this post.