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I manage a tenant of about 30 users.

I have three accounts that belong to past employees, and I don't know what to do with them. They have long since left, but our firm has a Data Retention Policy that requires all emails kept indefinitely.

I have taken standard leaver protocols (Reset Passwords, Disabled Account, Hidden from GAL, Appended "Leaver- and the users name" to the front of the email address, so it's easily identified. All fine from that aspect, as people need access to the emails, I just grant permissions to same.

However, they are taking a full E3 licence. I'd like to get rid of the accounts entirely and just keep the mailboxes indefinitely, but I don't think that is possible? Even if I convert them to a "Shared Mailbox" I still need to licence them, don't I?

I have Online Archive enabled for all users, but if I remove the licence that eliminates the archive also? At least that is my understanding.

I also have DLP / Data Retention policies in place, and it's blanket-set to "keep all data always", but I don't know if that applies to removed mailboxes? How do I even search for that data when the mailbox is gone?

It is one of those problems that I have deemed low priority up until now, as we are taking a full suite of E3 licences times three for just for leavers, which I would like to sort out.

Advice welcomed, thank you.

Humble-Self
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    I *think* you can specify a [retention policy](https://support.office.com/en-us/article/Overview-of-retention-policies-5e377752-700d-4870-9b6d-12bfc12d2423) : *"If a user leaves your organization, and their mailbox is included in a retention policy, the mailbox becomes an inactive mailbox when the user's Office 365 account is deleted. The contents of an inactive mailbox are still subject to any retention policy that was placed on the mailbox before it was made inactive, and the contents are available to an eDiscovery search."* [More information](https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=846909) – HBruijn Dec 11 '17 at 13:00
  • *"To make a mailbox inactive, it must be assigned an Exchange Online (Plan 2) license so that a Litigation Hold or Office 365 retention policy can be applied to the mailbox before it's deleted. After the mailbox is deleted, the Exchange Online license that was associated with it will be available to assign to a new user. **Inactive mailboxes don’t require ongoing licenses.**"* – HBruijn Dec 11 '17 at 13:04

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We simply convert to shared mailbox, keep the mailbox for 3 months and eventually delete (once backed up). This way we have free licenses to use.

Twin Cam
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