1660 - Microsoft 365 backup fails with error “service principal for resource is disabled"

Modified on Thu, 30 Apr at 7:52 AM

Symptom

A Teams or Exchange backup fails with the error:

The service principal for resource {tenantId} is disabled. This indicates that a subscription within the tenant has lapsed, or that the administrator for this tenant has disabled the application, preventing tokens from being issued for it. Please renew the subscription or re-enable the application.

Cause

This error is caused by one of two scenarios: the tenant that is being backed up does not have a valid Microsoft 365 subscription, or the administrator for this tenant has disabled the Redstor Cloud Backup application, which is required for backups to work.

Solution

To prevent this error:

1. Check your subscription status in the Microsoft 365 admin center. Renew it if it has expired.

2. In the Entra ID admin center, go to Enterprise applications and check that the Redstor Cloud Backup application is enabled.

3. Manually initiate a new backup from the RedApp. If the problem persists, log a support ticket.