Microsoft will formally cancel its legacy free Groups app for business, Groups Free (traditional), on April 12, with all chats, recordsdata and other information lost unless you switch to a paid model.
Information of the pinnacle payment push on Microsoft’s productiveness app turned into once lined by The Reg in January, but we’re informed some sysadmins on the free belief are simplest now waking up to the truth that they will both prefer to convince corporate to replace to a paid belief or manually migrate all of their company’s Groups information.
Microsoft has offered two paid choices for moving off Groups Free (traditional). The main is to shift to Microsoft Groups Necessities for $4 per particular person/month, the put users will be treated to the terrifying prospect of neighborhood meetings that might final “up to 30 hours.” (It does happen. A painful migration involving several international workers at some point of an excellent deal of time zones, or an ongoing outage/cyberattack the put staffers are firefighting at some point of time zones and it is some distance necessary to story development/ plot handovers.) Necessities users furthermore win 10GB of cloud storage per particular person, and might also include up to 300 contributors per meeting.
The 2nd paid option is to upgrade to Microsoft 365 Business Overall for $6 per particular person/month, the put you win everything Necessities users win, plus 1TB of cloud storage per particular person, meetings recordings with transcripts, the flexibility to retain a watch on buyer appointments with Bookings, and win admission to to internet and mobile apps.
Microsoft has supplied an option whenever you have to finish on a free tier. They will migrate from Microsoft Groups Free (traditional) to Microsoft Groups (free). Confusing? A minute. And there is a rep.
Microsoft notes: “You will be in a put to gaze and build recordsdata in your contemporary story thru April 12, 2023, on the alternative hand, none of it will switch to your original story.”
It furthermore notes that those on contemporary Groups Free (traditional) prefer to switch to the extra most up-to-date Groups Free by signing up again.
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Users of the original free model will tranquil internet win admission to to unlimited neighborhood meetings (up to 60 minutes long), can include up to 100 contributors per meeting, and will gain 5GB of cloud storage per particular person – with any luck storage they might no longer lose win admission to to later.
Sysadmins on Reddit had questions, notably in gentle of the KB5021751 update final month, which, among other things, appears to be like thru Windows PCs to find out-of-date versions of Administrative heart tool.
One sysadmin queried: “How can one ascertain that the Groups installed on an individual’s PC is licensed as phase of their 365 and no longer the free model? If one is realized to be using the free model but is already qualified/licensed for 365, how plot we force that upgrade so that the actual person retains their history? … Would MS internet already purchased detected and migrated them?”
One other requested: “Can we switch to the paid belief, after which downgrade to the free belief to retain our chat information? Switching from the original traditional free belief to the original free belief eliminates all chat information… it will maybe be needed to manually migrate it all :(“
To examine which model of Groups you are using:
- Begin Microsoft Groups and resolve your profile describe in the finish honest hand corner of the app.
- You will peek Microsoft Groups Free (traditional) or one other model title on the finish of the menu.
The final time freebie fans were this worried turned into once when Microsoft spammed administrators of Groups Free organizations to counsel they might tranquil upgrade to finish some distance from imminent deletion of information. The Windows giant later explained that this turned into once a mistake, and that a worm in the works had sent the mail. It said the original message turned into once intended for admins of unused Groups Free accounts that had sat dormant for 90 days (plus a 30-day grace duration). At the time, users smitten by finish dates were informed they’d win an computerized extension “and might no longer prefer to apprehension about any information loss.”
A Microsoft spokesperson informed us: “Beginning April 12, 2023, Microsoft Groups Free (traditional) will now no longer be accessible. Customers might train the newer free model of Groups, or upgrade to one other model of Groups, akin to Groups Necessities or Microsoft 365 Business Plans, that are designed for itsy-bitsy businesses.” ®
