Retirement of Office 365 E3 developer subscription

Recently I received an error message in my mobile's Outlook saying that there is an issue connecting my E3 developer account. I thought due to a password change it might occur. But when I tried to log in to the browser, it showed the same error. Then I rushed to check my Outlook email that was connected with the developer program to find out if I got any notice for the subscription renewal. Generally, I got a message for renewal and I used it for some POC and it was auto-renewed. But this time the message was a bit different. It states the following.

We noticed that you have an active Office 365 E3 developer subscription through your membership in the Microsoft 365 Developer Program.

The Microsoft 365 Developer Program no longer supports the Office 365 E3 developer offering, and your existing subscription will no longer be renewed after April 3, 2024. Please check out the Microsoft 365 Developer Program dashboard to see the expiration dates for your E3 subscription.

After that, they mentioned what I could do if I wanted to enroll in an E5 subscription. below are the steps mentioned for the same.

As a valued member of the program, you have the option to set up a new Microsoft 365 E5 developer subscription. We encourage you to take the following steps to set up a new subscription.

  • Go to your Microsoft 365 Developer Program dashboard.
  • On your E3 subscription tile, choose Delete subscription.
  • Type the name of your domain in the dialog box to confirm that you want to delete your E3 subscription.
  • The setup process for your new Microsoft 365 E5 subscription will start automatically.

After you delete your Office 365 E3 subscription, your Office 365 E3 tenant will be available for 30 days to allow you to migrate your data.

For help migrating your data, you can use the free tool Microsoft Mover. See also the following.

When I tried to log into my subscription, it was 1 day late and my data was lost. If you still have the data available, make sure to back it up. Set up a new E5 subscription and migrate the data over that using the above links.

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