Issue:
We have a client where an email address was deleted (in Office 365). Now, I see in the portal that there is a free license available, but when I try to assign the license to another user, it doesn’t seem to be available. Is it possible that the license is still linked to the deleted mailbox? I also cannot delete the user in the portal.
Resolution:
This is caused by Microsoft 365. Our Elements Collaboration Protection simply reflect the status provided by Microsoft. If Microsoft shows the mailbox, everything is fine. If not, we mark it as unavailable until Microsoft restores it. This doesn’t always indicate an issue with the mailbox but rather an incomplete response from Microsoft, which happens frequently. If the "unavailable" status persists for more than 1-2 days, you should verify whether the mailbox still exists (e.g., the AD user behind it may have been canceled or the mailbox may have been terminated).
Whenever a mailbox is unreachable, it is marked as "unavailable." Every 2-3 hours, we request an updated list of resources (mailboxes, sites, etc.) from Microsoft. If a mailbox previously existed in our system but is no longer returned by Microsoft, we mark it as unavailable. This status can occur due to temporary Microsoft issues, which are often resolved within a few hours. By marking mailboxes as unavailable instead of removing them, we can restore them to "unprotected" status if they reappear in future updates without needing to recreate them in the database.
Article no: 000045337