Purview Labelling Document Owner no longer exists

Question

I am having an issue in an enterprise environment where the account that applied MIP labels is no longer around and now people are unable to open the files the labels are applied to. The label requires security group membership which does still exist, it is just the document owner account that was deleted.

Is there a way to bypass or fix this issue since the label controls are based on the security group membership or are these files going to be locked forever since the labelling account is gone?

creative explorer · Answer

@zh_5597 The good news is that the files are not permanently locked, and there is a solution. The key to fixing this issue lies with the organization's Microsoft 365 or Purview administrators, not the end user. The permissions for MIP-protected files are not tied to the single user account that applied the label, but rather to the security group defined within the label's policy. Since the security group still exists and the users are still members, the correct administrative process is to use Microsoft Purview to manage the files. Either your 'IT Team' or maybe a 'designated administrator' with permission rights can either change the label on the affected files or, if necessary, remove the label entirely using tools like the Unlock-SPOSensitivityLabelEncryptedFile PowerShell cmdlet. This action will bypass the need for the original account, allowing other authorized users to regain access to and manage the documents.

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