A cloud-based identity and access management service for securing user authentication and resource access
A tenant administrator must contact Microsoft Customer Support and request reactivation within 20 days after the tenant entered the inaccessible state; this cannot be completed from the Azure portal.^1^
Request reactivation
- Open the public Microsoft customer-support contact page and select the number for your country or region.^2^
- Contact support as a tenant administrator and state:
- The Microsoft Entra tenant is inaccessible.
- Sign-in returns AADSTS5000225: This tenant has been blocked due to inactivity.
- You want to reactivate the existing tenant, not create another tenant.
- Have the following available to help identify the tenant:
- Tenant ID or primary tenant domain, if known.
- Administrator sign-in name.
- Exact error text, timestamp, trace ID, and correlation ID from the failed sign-in.
- Any inactivity or lifecycle notification received from Microsoft.
- Complete any tenant ownership or identity verification requested by support.
- Keep the resulting case number. Do not submit duplicate assistance requests while the case is being processed; Microsoft’s documented procedure is to wait for a decision on the existing request.^1^
Do not post the tenant ID, administrator address, trace ID, correlation ID, or verification documents in a public Q&A thread; provide them only through the support channel.
Eligibility deadline
Microsoft permits administrators to request reactivation only during the 20 days after the tenant enters the inaccessible state. A tenant that remains inaccessible for longer than 20 days is deleted and is not recoverable.^1^
Therefore:
- Blocked fewer than 20 days ago: contact Microsoft immediately and request reactivation.
- Block date unknown: contact support immediately; support must determine whether the tenant remains within the recovery window.
- Already deleted after the recovery window: the existing tenant cannot be restored. A replacement tenant would then be required.
This is a Microsoft Entra tenant lifecycle issue. Upgrading or reactivating the Azure Free subscription is not the documented recovery procedure for the AADSTS5000225 tenant block.
References