Power Platform – Sandbox environments are now included in inactivity-based cleanup [MC1289789]

Message ID: MC1289789
We are introducing an automated process to delete inactive sandbox environments, starting April 24, 2026.

Sandbox environments in your tenant inactive for 60 days or more will be automatically disabled, then soft deleted and permanently deleted if not reactivated. Environment owners and admins will receive emails before any disablement occurs. This aligns sandbox environments with the inactivity-based lifecycle policy already applied to Default, Developer, and Dataverse for Teams environments, helping optimize storage and reduce unused capacity.

Activity includes any user, maker, or admin action in the environment such as creating, editing, or launching an app; creating, editing, or running a flow; or creating, editing, or chatting with a Microsoft Copilot Studio agent; or copy, restore or reset environment. Any activity resets the 60-day inactivity period.

This is applicable to both managed and non-managed sandbox environments.

How does this affect me?
Starting April 24, 2026, environment owners of the sandbox environments that are inactive for 60+ days receive warning notifications.

Re-enabling your environment from the Power Platform Admin Center (PPAC) at any point, resets the timeline. Deleted environments remain recoverable for up to 7 days from the environment page in PPAC.

This change delivers:

• Optimized storage: Reclaim capacity from inactive sandbox environments automatically, with no manual effort.
• Reduced governance overhead: You no longer need to manually identify and remove unused sandbox environments.
• Consistent lifecycle policy: Aligns sandbox environments with Developer and Default environment cleanup behavior already in place.
• Recoverable by default: Deleted environments can be restored for up to 7 days from PPAC.

What action do I need to take?
No action is needed if your sandbox environments are in active use. You can check the last activity of an environment from the environments list in PPAC.

To keep an environment active, select Trigger environment activity on the environment page in PPAC when you receive a warning notification or ensure any user or maker performs activity in the environment.

No action is needed if you no longer need your inactive sandbox environments, as they will be cleaned up automatically.

Why is this action needed?
Unused sandbox environments consume tenant storage capacity and add governance overhead for admins with no corresponding business value. This change extends Power Platform’s existing inactivity-based cleanup process to sandbox environments, ensuring tenant capacity is used for environments that are actively delivering value. Admins receive multiple warning notifications before any disablement or deletion occurs, and deleted environments remain recoverable for 7 days.

If you would like more information on this update, please visit:

• Automatic deletion of Power Platform environments
• Recover a deleted environment
• Sandbox environments

Source: Microsoft

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