Why did I get a Dataverse capacity email? What it means and what to do

Many admins, and even makers, get a weekly email saying Dataverse storage is running low or over capacity, sometimes in a tenant that "doesn't use Dataverse". Here's what triggers it, what really happens if you ignore it, and how to fix it.

Why you got it

The email and a banner appear when your tenant's Dataverse database, file or log storage:

• has less than 15% left (informational);
• has less than 5% left (warning);
• is over what you're entitled to (critical).

Notes on who gets it:

• It goes weekly to global admins, Power Platform admins, Dynamics 365 admins, system admins and makers.
• You can't opt out or redirect it.
• "But we don't use Dataverse": features often create a Dataverse database quietly. Approvals in Power Automate is the classic example: the first approval in an environment sets up Dataverse to store it. Every environment also counts as 1 GB, whether it has a database or not.

Read the capacity page

Go to Power Platform admin center → Licensing → Capacity (or Resources → Capacity).

• Entitled versus consumed is shown for database, file and log, from your licences plus any add-ons.
• Borrowing: before counting you as "over", Microsoft lets one type borrow unused space from another, in eligible combinations. Notifications use this effective figure.
• Zero-GB environments: Teams, trial, preview, support and developer environments don't count, and show as 0 GB.
• The default environment includes 3 GB database, 3 GB file and 1 GB log of its own. The report shows only what it uses above that.

Select Details to see which environments, and which tables, use the space.

What happens when you're over

While you're over (any tenant):

• You can't create, copy, restore or recover environments, or convert a trial to paid (each needs at least 1 GB free).
• You can't add a Dataverse database to an environment.
• Apps, flows and data keep working. Microsoft says exceeding storage doesn't currently affect service availability, but its licence terms still require you to be licensed for what you use.

The new storage validation, announced in September 2026 and rolling out per Microsoft's Message center, adds stages for Dataverse-only tenants (Dynamics 365 Sales, Customer Service and similar, without finance and operations):

Production environments don't enter administration mode or get disabled, and nor do sandboxes with pay-as-you-go billing.

How to get back under

1. Find the biggest users. Open the capacity Details, then the environment's capacity analytics, and sort tables by size.

2. Free up space. Microsoft's Free up storage space guide lists methods per table:

   • database: completed system jobs and workflow logs (AsyncOperationBase, WorkflowLogBase), old imports and duplicate-detection jobs, activity and email records, trace logs, and tables you don't need in Dataverse search;
   • file: email attachments and notes with attachments;
   • log: audit logs and plug-in trace logs.

   Use bulk deletion jobs for most of these. Where it's rolling out, the Dataverse storage advisor in Licensing → Dataverse suggests what to clean up, and can move old data to long-term retention instead of deleting it. Storage figures can take up to 72 hours to update.

3. Delete environments nobody uses, remembering each counts 1 GB. Check with their owners first.

4. Buy capacity add-ons for steady growth, or link environments to pay-as-you-go (Azure billing) for variable use.

5. Short on time? Admins can request a one-time 45-day capacity extension. It's temporary and doesn't fix the cause.

Moving allocated capacity between environments doesn't fix a tenant overage, because it only moves what you already have.

Prevent the next one

• Govern who can create environments, and clean up trials and sandboxes regularly.
• Set capacity alerts per environment, for example with the CoE Starter Kit's capacity alerting. These are soft limits for reporting.
• Audit only the tables you need, and delete old audit logs on a schedule.
• Keep plug-in trace logging off in production.

Sources

• Microsoft Learn: Dataverse capacity-based storage details: notifications, overage lifecycle, scope, FAQ
• Microsoft Learn: What's new in storage
• Microsoft Learn: Extend Dataverse capacity for 45 days
• Microsoft Learn: Free up storage space
• Microsoft Learn: Delete completed system jobs and process logs
• Microsoft Learn: Legacy storage capacity
• Microsoft Learn: CoE Starter Kit: environment capacity alerting