Access Documents on School Account

Hello @Robert Lignowski,   

Thank you for reaching out to the Microsoft Q&A forum! 

The fact that you're still able to sign in to your school account and receive emails is a positive sign; it means your account is still partially active. 

However, since you've already tried accessing your account via Google Chrome and only see folders containing shared files, but not your General Documents folder, it's very likely that access to your personal OneDrive storage has been revoked following graduation. 

I agree with Emily’s explanation, and I’d like to help clarify further: 

Typically, after a student graduates, schools have policies to disable or delete personal OneDrive storage after a certain grace period. Files that were shared with you by others are stored outside your personal OneDrive, which is why they remain accessible. 

So even though your Outlook account is still active, your personal OneDrive may have already been deleted or is in the process of being removed. 

If those documents are important to you, I strongly recommend contacting your school’s IT administrator as soon as possible to confirm whether your personal data is still stored and request help recovering or transferring the files to your personal account. 

Find Your Microsoft 365 Admin: If you’re unsure who the Global Admin is within your organization, you can find guidance on locating them here: How do I find my Microsoft 365 admin? - Microsoft Support  

I understand that contacting your school’s IT department might feel a bit complicated, but only your school’s IT team has the authority and access needed to confirm the status of your data and help recover or transfer your files.

Once again, thank you again for raising this issue; it’s helped broaden my understanding. I hope you understand that I want to help as much as I can within the scope of this forum.        

Look forward to hearing from you!   

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It’s important to understand that Microsoft does not have the authority to manage individual users within an organization. Each organization’s IT department is responsible for managing its own users, following its own protocols and security policies. Microsoft’s role is to support the organization’s IT administrators by providing tools, not to bypass them or intervene directly.

Imagine a situation where a disgruntled former employee, or student, gets fired or removed and then contacts Microsoft to regain access to sensitive internal data. If Microsoft were to help them directly without the organization’s knowledge or approval, it would be a major breach of privacy and security. That’s why Microsoft strictly defers to the organization’s IT department for any user account matters.

I am afraid you would need to reach out to your school to discuss what you can access and what you cannot access after you graduate.

Update: on the advice of the AI, I tried accessing my account via Google Chrome. I could see all the folders with files that were shared with me but couldn't find any of the files that were in my General Documents folder.