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How to Monitor Users License Changes Report in Microsoft 365

Keeping track of Microsoft 365 licenses can be a constant battle. Inefficient license management leads to overspending on unnecessary licenses, draining your organization's budget. If you're looking for assistance in handling license changes, don't worry. This guide will help you in managing Microsoft 365 license changes to improve cost management practices.

Native Solution

Microsoft 365 Permission Required

High

Global Admin, Role Groups: Audit Manager or Audit Reader.

Option 1 Using Microsoft 365 Purview Portal

  • Login to the Microsoft 365 Purview portal.
  • Now select Changed user license from the Activities - friendly names dropdown.
  • After clicking Search, you'll be able to find all the license changes in your Microsoft 365 environment.
Using Microsoft 365 Purview Portal

Option 2 Using Windows PowerShell

  • Connect to the Exchange Online module using the below cmdlet.
  • Windows PowerShell Windows PowerShell 
     Connect-ExchangeOnline
  • Now, run the below command to get the license changes in your organization.
  • Windows PowerShell Windows PowerShell 
     Search-UnifiedAuditLog -StartDate MM/DD/YYYY -EndDate MM/DD/YYYY  -RecordType "AzureActiveDirectory" -Operations "Change user license" |Format-Table
Using Windows PowerShell
AdminDroid Solution
This report and 150+ more reports are under free edition.FREE

AdminDroid Permission Required

Delegated

Any user with report access assigned by Super Admin.

StepsUsing AdminDroid

Free
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  • Login to the AdminDroid Office 365 Reporter.
  • Navigate to the License Changes report under Audit»Azure AD»User Audit to find out who modified the Office 365 users' licenses.
Using AdminDroid

You can review all user license changes using this report. Additionally, the report provides details, such as license assignment status, license enablement status, etc., which can be useful for tracking license usage.

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  • Gain detailed insights into assigned or revoked licenses and whether the license assignment was successful through visually engaging charts. This allows admins to quickly identify potential security and compliance risks.
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Stay on top of your Microsoft 365 license changes at ease!

Tired of monitoring frequent license changes in Microsoft 365? AdminDroid simplifies license management, saving you time and money.

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Important Tips

Automate license assignments with group-based licensing, eliminating manual work and ensuring everyone has the required access.

Keep track of the user license expiry date to ensure timely renewal and uninterrupted usage of Microsoft 365, maintaining seamless productivity.

Monitor users' license changes and reduce unused subscriptions to optimize the subscription costs in the organization.

Azure ADOptimize Your Subscription Usage by Tracking Every License Change in Microsoft 365

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How to use audit logs to monitor group-based licensing activity? How to check if a Microsoft 365 user license is directly assigned or inherited from the group? How to update Microsoft 365 user licenses in bulk? How to manage guest user license changes in Microsoft 365? How to remove unused licenses from Office 365?

How to use audit logs to monitor group-based licensing activity?

With group-based licensing, you can assign, remove, or change Office 365 licenses for a specific group of users. Monitoring these changes is essential for managing license allocation efficiently and duplicate license assignments.

Microsoft Entra audit logs allow you to identify who made changes to licenses within groups.

  • To find the group-based license changes, navigate to the Microsoft Entra admin center.
  • Go to Audit logs under the Monitoring & health section and use the filters below.
    • Category- GroupManagement
    • Service-Core Directory
    • Activity-Set group license
  • Once applied, click on a row and expand it to view the additional details.
  • Now, click the Modified Properties tab to see the old and new values for the license assignment.
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With AdminDroid, you can easily audit Microsoft 365 group license changes whenever there's a modification in the Azure AD group license.

  • This report displays details such as activity time, username, group name, group-based license assignment, etc.
  • Monitoring these changes helps you identify groups with unused licenses or features. Thus, you can remove unnecessary licenses from the group and optimize overall licensing costs.
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Hint: Filter the report based on your preferred license and save it using the Save as View feature. This eliminates the need to reapply filters each time, ensuring efficiency and convenience for future use.

How to check if a Microsoft 365 user license is directly assigned or inherited from the group?

In Microsoft 365, licenses are assigned to users in two ways. They are:

  • Directly assigned: The license is assigned specifically to the user account.
  • Inherited from a group: The license is assigned to a user through their Microsoft 365 group membership. Most of the larger organizations are using group-based licensing as their preferred method to optimize their license usage.

You can determine whether the user license is directly assigned or inherited from a group by following the below steps:

  • Go to the Microsoft Entra admin center.
  • Navigate to Identity»Billing»Licenses.
  • Click on All products and select a license to get a list of users assigned with that license.
  • On this page, you can determine whether the user's license assignment is direct or inherited from a group, by checking under the Assignment Paths column.
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  • As the results are grouped by subscription, you must check each subscription individually to see all licenses assigned to a specific user. This can be challenging and time-consuming in large organizations.

Make use of AdminDroid’s All Licensed Users report to find all the licenses assigned to a specific user along with their assignment paths.

  • In addition, you can access details such as sign-in status, license status, and more to gain deeper insights into user management within your organization.
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Tip: To explore any report in AdminDroid, hit Ctrl + Shift + F and type fewer related keywords about the required report. This will show you the relevant reports.

How to update Microsoft 365 user licenses in bulk?

Implementing bulk license change in Microsoft 365 can streamline the management of user permissions and access to services. This process allows admins to change licenses for multiple users at once, saving time and ensuring consistency.

Here's how to change licenses to multiple users using the Microsoft 365 admin center.

  • Access the Microsoft 365 admin center and navigate to the Users »Active users page.
  • Select the names of the users you want to change licenses to and click Manage product license at the top.
  • In the Manage product licenses pane, select Assign more: Keep the existing licenses and assign more, and click Next.
  • Under Licenses, select the license(s) you want to assign to the desired users.
  • By default, all services included with the licenses are assigned to users. To restrict certain services, simply uncheck the boxes for the services you do not want the users to access.
  • Now, click Save changes, to modify licenses to multiple users.
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Assign multiple Microsoft 365 user licenses using PowerShell script

However, manually assigning licenses to each user can be time-consuming. To streamline the process, you can use the following script to assign licenses to multiple users by importing a CSV file.

$AddLicenses= @( @{SkuId = <SkuID>}, @{SkuId = <SkuID>})
$UserNames = Import-Csv -Header "UPN" $UserNamesFile
foreach ($Name in $UserNames) {
$UPN = $Name.UPN
Set-MgBetaUserLicense –UserId <UPN> -AddLicenses $AddLicenses -RemoveLicenses @()
}

How to manage guest user license changes in Microsoft 365?

Inviting guest users to collaborate with your organization and assigning licenses to them is essential in certain cases. However, there may be instances where a misconfiguration in license assignment or extended access could compromise your organization's data. Therefore, it is crucial to monitor and manage Microsoft 365 guest user license changes.

  • Login to the Microsoft 365 Purview portal.
  • Under the Activities – friendly names drop-down, select Changed user license.
  • Now add the guest user’s UPN in the Users section.
  • After clicking Search, you'll be able to find all the license changes for the specified guest user in your Microsoft 365.

However, using these native methods to find the license changes for multiple guest users can be a tedious process.

  • To simplify this task, you can use AdminDroid’s report to track all guest user license changes.
  • In this report, you can use the "License Operation" column to find the license change details.
  • Along with the above, this report provides details on all guest user license changes, including the modified plan details, license details, etc.
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How to remove unused licenses from Office 365?

Neglecting the stale users will lead to severe security threats and unwanted license expenditures. Manage unused licenses in Microsoft 365 by removing licenses from the stale users, using the below methods.

Remove Microsoft 365 user licenses using PowerShell

  • Connect to Microsoft Graph PowerShell and use the below cmdlet to remove Microsoft 365 licenses from user accounts.
Connect-MgGraph
Set-MgUserLicense -UserId "<UPN>" -RemoveLicenses @("<AccountSkuId1>") -AddLicenses @{}

How to remove the license from multiple users?

  • Navigate to Microsoft 365 admin center, and go to Users»Active users.
  • Select the desired users.
  • Now, select Manage product licenses, then Unassign all and Save changes.
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Note: Licenses inherited from a group cannot be removed directly. To remove such group-based license assignments, you must remove the user from the group that assigned it.

How to remove the license from a group?

  • Sign in to the Microsoft Entra admin center.
  • Select the desired users.
  • Navigate to Identity»Billing»Licenses.
  • Select the name of the license plan you want to remove from the group, and click Licensed groups.
  • Now, select Remove license to remove the license from the group.
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Remove user licenses from the Microsoft 365 admin center

  • Navigate to Users»Active users and click on the desired user.
  • Within the Licenses and apps tab, you will find a range of licenses listed under the Licenses section. Now, uncheck the license that needs to be removed.
  • Additionally, you can also remove the license of the desired application under the Apps section.
  • Once done, click Save changes to remove the license(s) from the selected users.

What happens to user data when an O365 license is removed?

  • When a user's license is removed, their Exchange data will be preserved for 30 days. Within this timeframe, admins can restore the user's data if needed. However, after the 30-day period, the data will be permanently deleted and cannot be recovered. If any retention policy or label is applied to the Exchange Online data, it will be retained until the policy expires.
  • For the files saved in OneDrive for Business, unless the user is deleted from the Microsoft 365 environment, those files will not be deleted.
  • If you have an Enterprise subscription, like Office 365 Enterprise E3 or E5, you can retain the mailbox data of deleted user accounts using inactive mailboxes by adjusting the hold duration of the mailbox.
  • Once the license is removed, the user's mailbox can't be searched using eDiscovery tools.

With AdminDroid’s dedicated report for license revoking activities, find all the removed Microsoft 365 license details along with the revoked plan details.

  • This report provides insights into the licenses that have been removed, allowing you to reassign them to active users which helps in optimal usage of Microsoft 365 licenses.
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AdminDroid Microsoft 365 Licensing AuditingBoost Productivity Through Smart Microsoft 365 License Management

The AdminDroid Azure AD auditing tool provides dedicated reports on license changes with all-inclusive details to ease license optimization. Also, get notified on license assignments and revoking activities to identify and prevent any potential resource misuse.

AdminDroid's advanced capabilities for tracking license changes in your Microsoft 365 setup include:

AdminDroid's User License Changes report offers admins a clear view of any changes made to licenses in Microsoft 365, including when licenses were assigned, changed, revoked, etc. It helps admins make sure that users only have the permissions allowed by their licenses. This minimizes security risks and enhances compliance.

A Quick Summary

Implement Advanced Alerting for License Changes

Learn how to use AdminDroids' user license changes default alert template to receive real-time notifications whenever Microsoft 365 licenses are assigned or revoked for a user.

Schedule Reports to Spot Unlicensed Users

Automate license changes reports with the advanced scheduler. Receive them periodically for effortless user license management.

Gain Insights from a Comprehensive License Dashboard

Use the dedicated Microsoft 365 license dashboard data to get an efficient oversight of license management.

Unlock In-Depth Details on Assigned Subscriptions

Make use of AdminDroid’s dedicated report to find the users by subscriptions, ensuring correct subscriptions are assigned to the users.

Utilize Role-Based Access for Managing Licenses

Provide granular access to Microsoft 365 users with AdminDroid's delegation feature for license monitoring activities like group or user license changes.

Retrieve License Expiry Reports in Various Formats

Export detailed license expiration reports in various formats like PDF, CSV, etc., to seamlessly integrate with existing workflows. This allows admins to easily share data for license auditing or user provisioning.

AdminDroid's Microsoft 365 license reporting tool simplifies the license management process by providing detailed reports on user and group license changes. These statistics help in identifying unused licenses, allowing admins to reallocate resources effectively and optimize licensing costs.

Kickstart Your Journey with AdminDroid

Your Microsoft 365 Companion with Enormous Reporting Capabilities!

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Common Errors and Resolution Steps While Exporting Microsoft 365 License Changes Report

The following are possible errors and troubleshooting hints while checking the Microsoft 365 license changes report.

Error: Inherited license assignment cannot be removed from the user directly. To remove their license, you must remove them from their group.

This error happens when you assign a license to a group, but try to remove the license from the user.

Troubleshooting hint :Remove the user from the licensed group to remove the license.

Error: Your account doesn’t have permission to view or manage this page in the Microsoft 365 admin center.

This error occurs if the user does not have administrator privileges to access the admin center URL or admin center.

Troubleshooting hint :Ensure that the user is assigned with appropriate administrator role while accessing the admin center URL.

Error: Audit log search argument startDate (05/05/2024 00:00:00) is later than endDate (04/04/2024 00:00:00).

This issue occurs when the end date is earlier than the start date.

Troubleshooting hint :Ensure that the date format is correct, and the end date should be ahead of the start date.

Error: License cannot be issued to a user without a usage location specified.

This error occurs because some Microsoft services aren’t available in all locations due to local laws and regulations.

Troubleshooting hint :To check and add a user's location, navigate to Azure AD»Users»All users»select the user»Edit properties»Usage location.

Error: Set-MgUserLicense: The term Set-MgUserLicense is not recognized as the name of a cmdlet, function, script file, or operable program. Check the spelling of the name, or if a path was included, verify that the path is correct and try again.

This error occurs when you execute the cmdlet 'Set-MgUserLicense' without installing and connecting to the necessary modules.

Troubleshooting hint :You can use the below cmdlet to install the Microsoft Graph Beta module and then connect to the Microsoft Graph PowerShell. 

Install-Module Microsoft.Graph
Connect-MgGraph