Access a project in Project for the web after its Microsoft 365 group is deleted
Microsoft Project for the web will soon become Microsoft Planner, which is currently rolling out to customers. To learn more about setting up the new Planner for your organization, see Microsoft Planner for admins.
If the Microsoft 365 group that is associated with your project is deleted, users in the group can't access the project. However, there are ways for you to regain access.
- The group owner can restore the Microsoft 365 group.
- An admin can reassign the project to a user who can then choose or create a new group.
The option you should choose depends on how long ago the group was deleted.
Restore the Microsoft 365 group
If a group that you own is deleted, it's retained for 30 days by default. This 30-day period is considered a "soft-delete" because you can still restore the deleted group. After 30 days, the group will be permanently deleted and can’t be restored.
If you’re the owner of a Microsoft 365 group, you can restore the group yourself by following these steps.
- On the Deleted groups page, select the Manage groups option under the Groups node, and then choose Deleted.
- Select on the Restore tab next to the group you want to restore.
After you restored the group, members of the group should be able to access the associated project in Project for the web.
Note
To learn more about deleting an Microsoft 365 group, see Restore a deleted Microsoft 365 Group
Reassign the project
If the Microsoft 365 group is deleted for longer than 30 days and isn’t restorable, an admin in your tenant needs to reassign the project. The project needs to be reassigned to either the user who needs to access it or someone who can add a new Microsoft 365 group in Project for the web.
The admin needs to:
- Find the project through the Advanced Find search function in the Dynamics 365 Admin Center.
- Assign the project to the user that needs to access it.
Find the project in Advanced Find search
Use Dynamics 365 Advanced Find search to look for the project you need.
In the Dynamics 365 Administration Center, select the default instance, and then select Open.
On the PowerApps Settings page, select Dynamics 365 Custom.
On the Projects page, select the filter icon in the menu bar and then select Advance Find.
In Advanced Find, within the Look for menu, select Projects. In the Use Saved View menu, select All projects.
Select Select, and from the menu, select Name. From the next menu, select Equals, and then in the Enter text box type the name of the project you’re looking for.
Select Results to run the query. The project you’re looking for should display in the Projects tab.
Reassign the project to a new user
After locating the project through Advanced Find, the admin can now reassign the project to a user.
To reassign a project to a user:
Select the checkbox next to the project name.
In the ribbon, select Assign Projects.
On the Assign Project screen, select in the Assign to box to change it to User or team.
Select in the User or team box, and then select the magnifying glass icon. Then scroll to the bottom of the results and select Look up more records.
On the Lookup Record screen, select User in the Look for menu, select the user from the user list, and then select Add.
The user that you added can now access the project in Project for the web. The user can also choose to associate a new Microsoft 365 group with the project and add users to it if others also need to access the project.