Get a Colleague's Files After They Leave Bowdoin

Issues

  • My coworker left Bowdoin and I cannot open a file they shared with me.
  • A link a former colleague sent me now says I do not have access.
  • What happens to a person's OneDrive when they leave Bowdoin?
  • How do I get files from someone who has already left the College?
  • Who is allowed to request access to a former employee's OneDrive?
  • Why can I still open our department's Teams files but not the files a departed colleague sent me?
  • How long do I have before a departed colleague's files are deleted for good?
  • As a department head, how do I request the work files of a staff member who has resigned?
  • A colleague in my office gave notice. What should happen to their files before the last day?

Environment

This article applies to Bowdoin faculty and staff who need files that were created or held by a colleague who has left the College. What you can do depends on where the file was stored, so identify the storage location before treating the file as lost.

  • Applies to Bowdoin faculty and staff with a Bowdoin Microsoft 365 account. Sign in at office365.bowdoin.edu.
  • In scope: files in a Microsoft Teams channel, files in a departed colleague's OneDrive, and files a departed colleague shared from OneDrive or from a Teams chat.
  • Supported devices are Bowdoin-issued Windows 11 computers, Bowdoin-issued Mac computers running macOS Sequoia (15.x), Tahoe (26.x), or newer, and iPad devices on the current version of iPadOS. Personal devices are supported on a best-effort basis only.
  • Recovering anything from a departed colleague's OneDrive is not self-service. A Bowdoin College Service Desk request is required.
  • Not in scope: access to a departed colleague's Bowdoin mailbox, which is a separate Service Desk request.

Resolution

Files in a Microsoft Teams channel are not affected by a departure

A file uploaded to a Microsoft Teams channel is stored in the Team's SharePoint site, not in the account of the person who uploaded it. The file belongs to the Team. When the person who uploaded the file leaves Bowdoin, the file stays in the channel with its version history, and every member of the Team keeps the access they already had. Nothing has to be requested, and nothing has to be recovered.

Checking the Team answers most questions of this kind. Open the department's Team in Microsoft Teams, open the channel, and look on the Shared tab. Some versions of Microsoft Teams label that tab Files; both labels point at the same channel library.

Note: Work kept in a Teams channel outlives the person who created it. That is the strongest practical reason to keep department work in a Team rather than in individual OneDrive accounts.

Files in a departed colleague's OneDrive are deleted along with the account

OneDrive is personal storage tied to one Bowdoin account. When the account is deleted, the OneDrive attached to that account is deleted after a retention window, and the content is then permanently gone. Microsoft's product default is 30 days after account deletion, but the timeline that governs a Bowdoin departure is the College's own offboarding schedule rather than the Microsoft default.

Sharing links do not outlive the storage they point at. A link a colleague sent from their OneDrive stops working once the account and its files are removed, even though the same link worked the day before.

Files a departed colleague shared with you from OneDrive or a Teams chat

The Shared list in OneDrive is a view, not a folder. Microsoft states that "the Shared view is not a separate folder" and that "items that others share with you are stored on their OneDrive." A file listed in the Shared view is not in your storage and never becomes yours.

A file sent as an attachment in a Microsoft Teams chat behaves the same way: the file is stored in the sender's OneDrive and shared with the people in that conversation. For more on where chat attachments live, see Files You Share in a Chat Are Not in the Channel in the Related Articles section.

While a file shared by a departing colleague still opens for you, open the file and use Save a Copy to place a copy in the Teams channel that should own it, so the department's copy belongs to the Team. Saving a copy while the colleague's account still exists is far quicker than recovering the file afterward. Once your access is gone, the file has to be recovered from the departed account, which is a Service Desk request.

Who requests access to a departed colleague's OneDrive, and what the request needs

A manager or department head submits the request rather than the person who needs the file, because access to another person's storage requires approval. Submit the request through the Service Catalog and include the departed colleague's full name, a description of the files you are looking for, and the name of the person who should receive access.

Ask for the recovered files to be placed in a Team the department already owns rather than delivered into one person's OneDrive. Recovered files placed in a Team sit somewhere that survives the next departure. For what to do with the recovered content once it arrives, see Preserve Shared OneDrive Files Created by Someone Who Has Left the College in the Related Articles section.

Act before the departed colleague's account is removed

The recovery window starts on the colleague's last day, not on the day someone notices a file is missing. When a colleague is leaving and their OneDrive holds work the department needs, raise the request during the notice period rather than after the last day.

The 93-day recycle bin recovery that applies to deleted files in Teams, SharePoint, and OneDrive does not help after an account is removed. Recycle bin recovery restores a deleted file into a library that still exists; it cannot restore a library that was deleted along with its account.

Warning: Once a departed colleague's Bowdoin account and its OneDrive are deleted, no one at the College and no one at Microsoft can produce the files that were in that OneDrive.

Prevent the same loss the next time someone leaves

  1. Keep department work in a Microsoft Teams channel from the beginning. If more than one person needs a file now, or could need it later, the file does not belong in personal OneDrive. For the steps, see Move Files into a Microsoft Teams Channel in the Related Articles section.
  2. Build a handover into every departure. A colleague who is leaving should move department work into the relevant Teams channels, and should use Download All OneDrive Files and Unlink Your Account Before Leaving Bowdoin in the Related Articles section for their own personal copies.
  3. Confirm that every Team the department depends on has at least two owners, so no Team is left with nobody able to manage it. For owner duties and for the steps to take when an owner leaves, see What a Microsoft Team Owner Is Responsible For and When a Team Owner Leaves in the Related Articles section.

Additional Help

If you need further assistance, you have several options:

  • Bowdoin Bot: Chat with Bowdoin Bot directly from any KB page for instant answers.
  • Phone: Call the Bowdoin College Service Desk at (207) 725-3030.
  • In person: Visit the Tech Hub in Smith Union during business hours.
  • Submit a ticket: Request assistance through the Service Catalog.

Additional Resources

 

 

AI-assisted content: This article was created with AI. It was verified and edited by a human.
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