Share via

Acceptable Use Policy violation notice on Microsoft 365 Developer E5 sandbox - SharePoint read-only at farm level

Gergely Gyetvai 65 Reputation points
2026-03-25T12:27:51.85+00:00

Hi,

Yesterday a banner appeared across my Microsoft 365 Developer E5 sandbox tenant with the following message:

"Your organization's use of Microsoft 365 has been identified as a violation of the Acceptable Use Policy in the Product Terms. The Microsoft 365 subscription will be deactivated on Tue Apr 14 2026 UTC and all SharePoint and OneDrive content will be blocked."

As a result, all SharePoint sites and OneDrive are in read-only mode — I can view and download content but cannot upload, modify, or delete anything. Checking the site settings on one of the affected SharePoint sites shows:

"This site is read only at the farm administrator's request."

I believe this confirms the restriction is applied at the service level by Microsoft, not due to any local configuration, storage quota, checkout settings, or app permissions on my end.

Some context about my setup:

  • This is a personal Microsoft 365 Developer E5 sandbox — no production use, no real users, no business data
  • Used exclusively for Power Platform development and testing (Power Apps canvas apps, Power Automate flows, SharePoint REST API)
  • No bulk email activity, no external scripts, no automation running at scale
  • My Microsoft 365 Developer Program dashboard shows 79 days remaining with no warnings or flags — contradicting the AUP notice

I have already raised a support ticket (ref: [Moderator note: personal info removed]). The initial AI-generated response suggested checking library settings, OneDrive quota, and app permissions — none of which apply here given the farm-level block. I have replied with the above details and am waiting for a human agent to follow up.

My questions:

  • Has anyone experienced this on a developer tenant and managed to get it resolved?
  • Is there any way to identify what specifically triggered the AUP flag?

Any help or shared experience is greatly appreciated.

Thanks

Microsoft 365 and Office | Development | Microsoft 365 Developer Program
Answer recommended by moderator
  1. Gergely Gyetvai 65 Reputation points
    2026-03-29T09:25:24.0266667+00:00

    Hi @Gabriel-N ,

    Thank you for your response and for the helpful resources.

    I wanted to share an update: I can confirm that raising a support ticket is definitely the right step — as you suggested. I was contacted by Microsoft Support and had an online session with a Support Ambassador. She was extremely nice and supportive throughout the entire process. During the session, we collected screenshots of the error message and relevant pages from the admin center, and I exported and sent the requested logs.

    Unfortunately, the specific reason behind the AUP flag could not be identified during the session. My case has now been escalated to an internal backend team, and I'm currently waiting for their response.

    A few practical tips for anyone going through this process: once your ticket is assigned to a human agent, you'll receive an email that you will be contacted. Before the online session, it's worth preparing in advance — log into your tenant, open a SharePoint site that is affected by the restriction, and also have the Microsoft 365 admin center open and ready. The session was conducted via phone using Quick Assist for screen sharing, so connecting a headset to your phone will make it much easier to follow instructions while navigating on your screen.

    I'll post an update here once I hear back.

    Thank you again for your help.

    Gergely

    2 people found this answer helpful.

3 additional answers

Sort by: Most helpful
Most helpful Newest Oldest
  1. Gabriel-N 15,600 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator
    2026-03-25T13:59:25.08+00:00

    Please note that Q&A forum is a public platform, and moderators will modify the question to hide personal information in the description. Kindly ensure that you hide any personal or organizational information the next time you post an error or other details to protect personal data.

    Hello Gergely Gyetvai

    Sorry to hear about the situation you’re running into. I did some research and found a few similar cases that may be helpful in your scenario.

    Based on those cases, this type of restriction is typically resolved only by working with a human support agent, so opening a support ticket is definitely the right path, and you’ve already taken the correct step there. Unfortunately, the timeline and outcome for recovery can vary, and there isn’t a guaranteed timeframe for restoring write access.

    Given that uncertainty, you may want to consider backing up any important data to a new tenant as a precaution, while access is still available in read-only mode. In parallel, it may also be helpful to review the Microsoft Acceptable Use Policy here: https://www.microsoft.com/en-US/microsoft-365/legal/docid12 to double-check whether any activity might have unintentionally violated one of the terms. If you do identify anything that could be a concern, removing or stopping that activity may help when Microsoft reviews the case.

    Also, based on the notification you shared, the block appears to apply specifically to SharePoint and OneDrive, not the entire tenant. Because of that, it’s possible that the status shown in the Microsoft 365 Developer Program dashboard does not fully reflect the service-level restriction currently in place.

    Additionally, you may want to recheck the guidance in this article: Error "This page has been blocked as it violates the Acceptable Use Policy" It confirms that if you believe your organization isn’t involved in prohibited activities, you should select Contact support on the SharePoint Acceptable Use Policy page in the Microsoft 365 admin center.

    Hope this information is helpful, and please feel free to share any updates from Microsoft Support.

    Note: Please follow the steps in our documentation to enable e-mail notifications if you want to receive the related email notification for this thread.

    1 person found this answer helpful.
    0 comments
  2. pagna sreng 0 Reputation points
    2026-04-08T02:30:06.73+00:00

    I had the same issues, but I don't know what to do. I tried the support, but all the messages I got were AI generated that is not effective and don't understand the issue at all.

    0 comments
  3. Q&A Assist
    2026-03-25T12:28:11.9433333+00:00
    AI generated content. This question contains an answer created with AI from Q&A Assist. Learn more

    The behavior described matches a service-level enforcement related to Microsoft’s Acceptable Use Policy (AUP), not a site-level configuration issue.

    Key points from the documented behavior:

    1. When a SharePoint or OneDrive site is blocked for AUP reasons, users see a message similar to:

      "This page has been blocked as it violates the Acceptable Use Policy located in the Terms of Use. If you believe this is a mistake, please contact our Support team using Microsoft 365 Admin Center for further assistance."

      In such cases, the block is applied by Microsoft across the service, not by tenant-level configuration such as site policies, lock states, quotas, or permissions.
    2. For AUP-related blocks, the documented resolution path is to work with Microsoft support from the tenant’s admin center. Specifically:
      • The cause is that Microsoft has detected activity it believes violates the “Acceptable Use Policy for Microsoft Online Services.”
      • The only supported remediation is to submit a support request and have Microsoft review and, if appropriate, restore access.
      • The documentation explicitly states:

        If you believe that your organization isn't involved in prohibited activities, submit a support request to restore access. To submit a support request, select Contact support on the SharePoint Acceptable Use Policy page in the Microsoft 365 admin center.

    3. For read-only or locked SharePoint/OneDrive sites not related to AUP, there are self-service options (site policies, lock state, maintenance). However, these do not apply when Microsoft has enforced an AUP block at the service level. In those AUP scenarios, tenant admins cannot clear the block themselves.

    Based on the documented behavior, this addresses the questions:

    • Has anyone experienced this on a developer tenant and managed to get it resolved? The documentation does not provide tenant-type-specific exceptions. Regardless of whether the tenant is a Developer E5 sandbox or a production tenant, AUP enforcement is handled by Microsoft. Resolution requires a support case and review by Microsoft; there is no documented self-service fix.
    • Is there any way to identify what specifically triggered the AUP flag? The documentation only states that the issue occurs if any user in the organization engages in activities prohibited by the AUP. It does not provide a mechanism for administrators to see the exact trigger or rule. The only documented path is to contact Microsoft support via the SharePoint Acceptable Use Policy page in the Microsoft 365 admin center and work with support to review and, if appropriate, restore access.

    Given that a support ticket is already open, the next step is to ensure the case is associated with the SharePoint Acceptable Use Policy issue from the Microsoft 365 admin center and wait for review by Microsoft support. There is no additional documented self-service diagnostic or configuration change that can clear an AUP-based block or reveal the specific trigger.

    References:

    0 comments

Your answer

Answers can be marked as 'Accepted' by the question author and 'Recommended' by moderators, which helps users know the answer solved the author's problem.