Permanently Delete Users from Office 365 Admin Portal

In Microsoft 365, when users are deleted, they are not immediately removed from the system. Instead, they are moved to a recycle bin in Azure Active Directory (Azure AD), where they are retained for a period in case recovery is needed. However, there are situations where you might need to permanently delete these users to ensure compliance with data retention policies or to free up user principal names (UPNs) for reuse. This process involves using specific PowerShell cmdlets to connect to Azure AD, list the deleted users, and then permanently remove them. Below are the technical steps required to accomplish this.

Step 1: Connect to Azure AD

First, run the Connect-MsolService cmdlet to initiate a connection with Azure Active Directory.

Connect-MsolService        

Step 2: List Deleted Users

To see a list of the deleted users, run the following command:

Get-MsolUser -ReturnDeletedUsers        

Step 3: Remove a Specific Deleted User

To remove a specific deleted user, use the following command, replacing [email protected] with the user principal name:

Remove-MsolUser -UserPrincipalName [email protected] -RemoveFromRecycleBin        

Step 4: Remove All Deleted Users

To remove all deleted users at once, run the following command:

Get-MsolUser -ReturnDeletedUsers | Remove-MsolUser -RemoveFromRecycleBin -Force