M365 Changelog: Block is being retired from Devices – Teams admin center

MC256461 – Microsoft will be retiring the feature Block from the Devices section in the Teams admin center. Block provided a way to avoid sending commands to devices even if they were included in a group of devices that were being bulk-edited. Devices were still listed in your list of devices with a status of Blocked.

Per usage and feedback Microsoft believes that it doesn’t address significantly relevant scenarios for the administrators and we want to focus on more effective management features. Instead we recommend the utilization of Remove for excluding devices from managing and usage. 

Note: If you haven’t used Block from the Devices section in the Teams admin center or currently have no devices in a Blocked state, you will not be impacted.

Key points:

• Timing: Microsoft will begin gradually rolling this out in mid-May and expect to complete by the end of May
• Action: review and utilize Remove instead of Block

How this will affect your organization:

You are receiving this message because Microsoft’s reporting indicates your organization is using Device management in Teams admin center.

Administrators will no longer be able to mark a device Blocked, when this change is implemented. The devices which are currently in a Blocked state, will be unblocked and they will return to their current state (whether online or offline).

What you need to do to prepare:

In case you have devices that are in a Blocked state, Microsoft recommends identifying them and use Remove as appropriate.