Managing Microsoft 365 licenses can be a challenging task, but it is a crucial task for cost savings. Administrators must identify and unassign unused licenses, and re-assign them to users who require them. Office 365 Manager offers support for assigning or removing Microsoft 365 licenses for individual users or in bulk, eliminating the necessity for PowerShell scripts.
In this article, we will explore the steps involved in assigning new licenses, replacing current licenses, and removing assigned licenses for multiple users using the Office 365 Manager.
- Find and Select the Required Users to Update License
- Import Required Users from a CSV File
- Assign new License(s) to Bulk Users
- Replace/Reassign License(s) for Bulk Users
- Remove Licenses from Bulk Users
Find and Select the Required Users to Update License
To manage Microsoft 365 licenses, the initial step involves identifying the users who need license assignment or updates, as well as identifying inactive users for license removal. Follow the steps below to generate a relevant report that provides the necessary information for these tasks.
- Open the Office 365 Manager app‘s user interface console.
- Go to the Home page.
- Search for and locate the necessary user report (e.g., Unlicensed Users, Users by Job Title, Recently Created Users, Users based on Applied License, Inactive Users, Licensed and Never Logged-in Users, etc.).
- Click on the report, which will open a report view within the Azure AD page.
- Alternatively, within the Azure AD page, under the Office 365 Users or License tab, you can choose a relevant report by clicking the Select Report option.
- Once you have generated the report, you can select the required users either by checking the checkboxes or using keyboard shortcuts like Ctrl or Shift + Select or employing mouse-drag selection.
- Now, click on the Update License action within the Office 365 Users tab or select the Update User License action within the License tab.
- You will then see the Update Users License action UI window. Choose the necessary License Update option and proceed to update licenses for multiple users in bulk.
Import Required Users for License Update from a CSV File
Managing users through a CSV file is one of the easiest methods for selecting the necessary user details for updates. To choose the required users via CSV, follow the steps below:
- Click on the Update User License action without selecting any users. This will trigger a user picker popup for selecting users for the action.
- Alternatively, you can go to the Home page, navigate to the Management tab, click on License Management, and click on the Update User License action, this will directly open the user picker UI.
- In the user picker popup, you will find the “Import users from CSV” option.
- Select the Import users from CSV option.
- Then, choose the CSV file that includes the UserPrincipalName of the desired users, with each user listed in a row within the CSV file.
This approach streamlines the process of updating licenses by allowing you to import users directly from a CSV file. If you need to assign separate licenses for different sets of users, the tool offers you the other feature Bulk Update Licenses to Microsoft 365 Users from a CSV File.
Assign New License(s) to Multiple Users in Bulk
After you have chosen the necessary users and reached the Update Users License action UI by following the previously mentioned steps, follow these instructions:
- Ensure the first option, Assign Licenses is selected under the Update License options.
- If necessary, set the Usage location as it is mandatory for assigning a license to a user. If the selected users are new and do not have a usage location, you should set it now.
- Select the M365 license(s) that you want to apply to the selected users.
- Click the Update button to assign the selected licenses to all the users you have selected.
This process will add the specified licenses to the selected users efficiently.
Replace or Reassign License(s) for Multiple Users in Bulk
This action allows you to replace an existing license with a new license without affecting any of the licensed features. For instance, you can replace the Microsoft E3 license with the Microsoft E5 license in a single operation.
Follow these steps to remove the existing licenses and assign a new license:
- Select the required users and access the Update User License action UI by following the previously mentioned steps.
- In the Update License options section, choose the Replace Licenses option.
- Select the necessary license(s) that you want to update.
- Finally, click the Update button to unassign all the existing licenses and assign only the selected license(s).
By following these steps, you can seamlessly replace existing licenses with new ones for the selected users while maintaining all licensed features.
Remove M365 Licenses from Multiple Users in Bulk
To remove and free up existing licenses from users who no longer require M365 licenses, follow these steps:
- Select the necessary users and proceed to the Update User License action UI by following the previously mentioned steps.
- In the Update License options section, choose the Remove Licenses option.
- Select the license(s) that you want to remove.
- Lastly, click the Update button to unassign all the selected licenses from the selected users.
These steps will effectively free up licenses by removing them from the specified users who no longer need Office 365 licenses.