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Inactive Site Policies

Inactive site policies automatically detect SharePoint sites nobody uses and ask their owners whether the sites are still needed. Part of site lifecycle management in SharePoint Advanced Management, a policy checks activity across SharePoint, Teams, Viva Engage, and Exchange, emails the owners of inactive sites monthly, and can move unclaimed sites to read-only or archive automatically. It is the standing defense against the abandoned-site sprawl that every Teams-created site quietly adds.
Related Features
Change History Report, SharePoint Advanced Management (SAM), Site Ownership Policy, Site Permissions Across Your Organization

Common Use Cases

  • Taming site sprawl: cleaning up the abandoned sites every Teams-created site quietly adds
  • Owner certification: asking owners to confirm whether a site is still needed
  • Automated archiving: moving unclaimed dead sites to read-only or archive
  • Copilot cleanup: shrinking the stale content Copilot could surface
  • Safe dry runs: using simulation mode to preview results before enforcing anything
  • Ongoing hygiene: a standing monthly policy that keeps sprawl from returning

Benefits

  • Detects inactivity automatically: across SharePoint, Teams, Viva Engage, and Exchange signals
  • One-click certification: owners confirm a site is still needed with the Certify site button
  • Hands-off enforcement: read-only or archive applies on its own after notifications
  • Simulation first: a safe one-time dry run before going active
  • Flexible scope: by template, creation source, sensitivity label, or a CSV of up to 10,000 URLs
  • Audit-ready report: a CSV of every inactive site with full metadata

How It Works

  • Lives in the SharePoint Admin Center: App Launcher, Admin, SharePoint admin center, Site lifecycle management under Policies, Inactive site policies, Open, Create policy
  • Scans for inactivity: file views and edits, page visits, Teams channel messages, Viva Engage posts, and email to the group mailbox
  • Notifies owners monthly: the email carries a Certify site button; one click confirms the site is needed and skips it for a year
  • Enforces after three notices: do nothing, set the site to read-only, or archive it after a mandatory read-only period of 3 to 12 months
  • Admin to create, tenant admin to reverse: only SharePoint administrators can create policies, and unlocking a read-only site or reactivating an archived one requires a tenant admin
  • Licensing: the tenant needs either the SharePoint Advanced Management add-on license or a Microsoft 365 Copilot license, which includes Advanced Management

Limits and Nuances

  • Modes: run a simulation policy once for a report only, or an active policy that runs monthly
  • Scope and exclusions: scope by template, creation source, sensitivity label, or a CSV of up to 10,000 URLs, and exclude up to 100 sites plus users or groups from notifications
  • Enforcement options: do nothing, set read-only, or archive after a mandatory read-only period of 3, 6, 9, or 12 months
  • Out-of-scope sites: OneDrive, system-created sites, app catalogs, root sites, home sites, and Teams shared or private channel sites are out of scope
  • Archive prerequisite: archiving requires Microsoft 365 Archive to be enabled
  • Certification window: certified sites are skipped for one year, and clicking the site link in the notification email does not count as activity

Common Questions About Inactive Site Policies

What counts as an inactive site?

A site with no activity over your chosen window across all the signals SharePoint measures: file views, edits, shares and syncs, page visits, Teams channel messages and reactions, Viva Engage posts, and email received in the group mailbox. Clicking the site link in the notification email does not count as activity.

What license is required for inactive site policies?

You need either the SharePoint Advanced Management add-on license or a Microsoft 365 Copilot license, which includes Advanced Management. Licensing packages change often, so check Microsoft’s official requirements before planning around it.

What happens if nobody certifies the site?

After three monthly notifications without certification, the policy applies the enforcement action you configured: do nothing (notifications pause and resume after three months), set the site to read-only, or archive it after a mandatory read-only period of 3, 6, 9, or 12 months via Microsoft 365 Archive.

What is simulation mode?

A simulation policy runs once and produces the report without sending notifications or enforcing anything – a safe dry run. When the results look right, convert it to an active policy that runs monthly. Note that a failed simulation must be deleted and recreated.

Which sites are excluded?

OneDrive accounts, system-created sites, app catalogs, root sites, home sites, tenant admin sites, and Teams shared or private channel sites are always out of scope. Within scope, you can exclude up to 100 specific sites and up to 100 users or groups from notifications.

How does this help with Microsoft 365 Copilot readiness?

A stale site is stale content Copilot can still pull into an answer. Cleaning up inactive sites before enabling Copilot shrinks the pile of outdated material it can surface – and an active policy keeps the pile from growing back.