blank

Version 1.5

Applied To: SharePoint 2010, 2013, 2016, SharePoint Online

Situation:

Lot of users lost their SharePoint MySite. The site got deleted and they were not able to see any data in their MySite. In some situations, users were prompted for the creation of new MySite. Most of the deleted sites were for inactive users though.

MySite Cleanup Process Chart:

I created an initial version of the following MySite Cleanup Job Process for overview.

Softvative SharePoint User Profile MySite Cleanup Job
SharePoint User Profile MySite Cleanup Job Process by Softvative Inc

Cause:

SharePoint Server has a ‘My Site Cleanup Job’ as a Timer Job. The job runs every hour. You can view the job at this location:

SharePoint Central Administration website > Monitoring > Under ‘Time Jobs’ click ‘Review Job Definitions‘ > Scroll to the bottom of the page and go to next page. Look for ‘My Site Cleanup Job‘ and click on it.

SP MySite Cleanup Job
SharePoint My Site Cleanup Job

The function of My Site Cleanup job is to delete the user profile and My site of users that are queued for deletion.

Conditions that will mark the account for deletion:

The user profile and My site will be marked for deletion if any of the following conditions is met.

a. account is deleted in AD (Active Directory)
b. account is disabled in AD
c. SharePoint Profile Sync connection is modified with additional filters, deleted, recreated (e.g filter like exclude user with Department = Terminated)
d. account is moved to an AD OU that is not part of SharePoint Profile Sync

Test Scenario:

I used six test accounts with few of those having managers listed in AD account. The SharePoint Profile Sync added those to the SharePoint profile. Later I logged in as those test users and created their my sites by clicking on the link. Alternatively click username drop down on top right, choose My Site from dropdown. Then click on ‘My Content‘ link on top left.

http://mySiteHost.domain.com/_layouts/MySite.aspx

Then I deleted one, disabled two and moved to a different OU one account. That left the two out of six test accounts as untouched in AD.

Subsequent user profile run marked the accounts based on those conditions with bDeleted =1 in SQL tables. That in layman terms – the site is queued for deletion.

I got following email notification for one of the test account that was setup as my Direct Report in AD accounts properties.

The My Site of Test User 5 is scheduled for deletion in 14 days. As their manager you are now the temporary owner of their site. This temporary ownership gives you access to the site to copy any business-related information you might need. To access the site use this URL: http://mysiteHost.domain.com/personal/testuser5

After 11th day, I got same email but with deletion in 3 days.

SharePoint MySite Cleaner job then looks at the bDeleted=1 and notifies the user’s Manager if one was listed in AD, or Secondary MySite Owner if no manager was configured. It sends second notification after 11 days. After 14 days it deletes the site. In few situations, I’ve seen users were actively working in SharePoint when their My site got deleted. That happens after changes made by AD Team or SharePoint team (conditions above – Conditions that will mark the account for deletion) but after 14 days the site will be deleted even if the changes were reverted.

 

SQL Query to check SharePoint user profiles / My Sites marked for deletion:

I then used the following SQL queries to find the status. It is not a recommended method, use it at your own risk.

1. Use the following query to check the accounts that are marked for deletion. 
— Check the Sharepoint User Profile accounts that are marked for deletion
select * from [Profile DB].[dbo].[UserProfile_Full] with (nolock)
where bDeleted =1
order by PreferredName

2. SQL Query to check the Email Notification Status sent to Manager or Secondary Mysite Owner:
–Query the MysiteDeletion Email Notification status in User Profile DB in Sharepoint
select * from [Profile DB].[dbo].[MySiteDeletionStatus] with (nolock)
–where NotificationStatus = 1 — Email sent to Manager or Seconday contact that site will be deleted in 14 days
— where NotificationStatus = 2 — Email sent to Manager or Seconday contact that site will be deleted in 3 days

3. SQL Query to find the users My Site in MySite Content DB – AllWebs Table
–SQL Queries to check the users under MySite Web App / Content DB
SELECT FullUrl, Title, RequestAccessEmail 
FROM [WSS_Content_MySites].[dbo].[AllWebs]
order by FullUrl

4. SQL Query to check the users info in MySite content DB – UserInfo Table
— Another Query to check users Info under MySite Content DB / MySite Web App
select * from [WSS_Content_MySites].[dbo].[UserInfo] with (nolock)
order by tp_Login

Recommendations:

a. Make sure to test your User Profile Synchronization Connections in pre-production first.

SharePoint Central Admin > Application Management > Manage Service Applications > Click on User Profile Synchronization service application > Click ‘Configure Synchronization Connections’ under Synchronization section. Hover mouse over the connection name, click on drop down, and choose Edit to change the selection of Active Directory OU in the sync. Choose ‘Edit Connection Filters’ from the previous connection page to review / update filters.

SP User Profile Sync Connections
SharePoint User Profile Service Application – Synchronization Connection

b. Partially Disable the ‘My Site Cleanup Job’ when editing Profile Sync connection. Later make sure to enable the job. My Site Cleanup Job performs some other cleanups as well like Organization Browser list, People Picker etc.

c. Make sure the ‘Secondary MySite Owner’ account listed has an email address that is monitored by the SharePoint Team or those email get forwarded to SharePoint Team to act on it.

d. Make it as part of SharePoint Governance & training that Managers should notify SharePoint Team when they get the email notification for site deletion with in 14 days.

e. Monitor / control changes done in Active Directory that will impact SharePoint users. Example like moving AD account to a different OU that is not part of share point User Profile Sync.

SharePoint Online / OneDrive for Business

OneDrive for Business stores documents under user’s mysite (part of User Profile) in SharePoint Online (Office 365). Use the following Microsoft KB article for reference:
 
OneDrive for Business retention and deletion – https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/3042522
 
Use OrphanedPersonalSitesRetentionPeriod parameter of Set-SPOTenant PowerShell cmdlet to increase the value of 30 content deletion from default value of 30 days to a higher value. Email notification will still be sent notifying contents will be deleted in 30 day and 7 days. https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/fp161390.aspx
 
Use IncludeOnlyPersonalSite and Limit parameters of Get-SPODeletedSite Powershell cmdlet to get the list of Personal sites (OneDrive for Business contents) that are marked for deletion. https://technet.microsoft.com/library/fp161365.aspx
 
Use SharePoint Online eDiscovery to put a hold on deletion of Mysite (OneDrive For Business) contents. Create a new site collection using eDiscovery template in your SharePoint Online Tenant if you don’t have eDiscovery site in place.
 

Note:
I’ll cover the process on how to analyse and recover the deleted MySites in situations where bulk of Mysites got deleted. That is to see which sites had data and which ones were just not actively used MySites or deleted MySites without any documents to recover. I’ll try to cover the use of PowerShell commands Get-SPDeletedSite and Restore-SPDeletedSite.

References:
1. http://blogs.msdn.com/b/kaevans/archive/2012/06/25/top-recommendations-for-managing-the-my-site-cleanup-timer-job.aspx
2. http://blogs.technet.com/b/fromthefield/archive/2013/07/25/windows-powershell-script-to-output-site-collection-information.aspx

Search Keywords:

MySite Deleted by SharePoint User Profile MySite Cleanup Job
MySite Deleted by MySite Cleanup Job
MySite Cleanup Job
User Profile Sync removed mysite
SharePoint MySite Removed
SharePoint MySite deleted
SharePoint User Profile deleted
How A User Profile is Deleted?
How A MY Site is Deleted?
My Site deletion Mystery
Process of My Site Deletion
My Site Deletion Process
Lost MySite Data
Lost SharePoint Mysite
Onedrive for Business deletion
Prevent OneDrive for Business deletion
Retain OneDrive for Business contents
Prevent SharePoint Online user site deletion
SharePoint Online mysite deletion
SharePoint eDiscovery to prevent OneDrive Deletion

One Response

  1. I don’t even know the way I ended up right here, but I assumed this submit used to be great.
    I don’t recognise who you might be however certainly you’re going to a famous blogger in the event you are not already.
    Cheers!

Leave a Reply

Sign up for Softvative Newsletter

Get notified about new articles and deals

Receive the latest technology and leadership news and resources from us

Subscribe To Softvative Newsletter