Disabling Office 365 Video

I don’t really want to write this post as I believe everyone who has Office 365 and appropriate licenses for Video should be looking at it, but I have worked with quite a few clients recently and understand the need to control the release of features.  When Office 365 Video was announced a few years ago it came with little fanfare as it was really just the beginning of an enterprise video solution. Over the past year the solution has continued to evolve and is now becoming a valuable tool in the tool-belt of Office 365.

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When you sign up for Office 365 you are at the mercy of Microsoft as far as the releasing of new technology. This is normally a new release philosophy that your company will need to evolve into. There are different ways to control the flow of information being release in Office 365 using things like First Release or even another tenant but this post is specific to the scenario controlling Office 365 Video.

To start…all of this information is only as valid as to when this post was written (April 2016).  As O365 is changing often this may not be how to do this in the future.

A few quick notes:

  • By default the Office 365 Video portal is turned on
  • By default anyone who has an appropriate license can create channels
  • The Video tile will be available to anyone who has an appropriate license
  • The Office 365 Video portal hub is a site collection in SharePoint Online

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Steps to disable the Office 365 Video Portal

1 – Navigate to your SharePoint Online Admin Center

  • Option 1:  Direct URL (replace contoso with your tenant info):  https://contoso-admin.sharepoint.com
  • Option 2:  Navigate to Office 365 Admin Center -> Use the left navigation to open the SharePoint Admin Center

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2 – Click “settings” in the left navigation of the SharePoint Admin Center

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3 – Scroll down down to the section titled: “Streaming Video Service”

  • Check “Disable streaming video through Azure Media Services and disable the Video Portal”

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  • Click “OK” at the bottom of the page

4 – Wait….Wait…..keep waiting….It will take a few minutes for the tile to be removed.

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5 – If you try to navigate directly to the Video portal url (https://contoso.sharepoint.com/portals/hub) you will now see a new message

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5 Comments

  • Georgeina Baker

    August 10, 2017

    How do you reactivate Video if you want to reintroduce after disabling it? TIA

    Reply
    • Drew Madelung

      August 10, 2017

      To reactivate you select the radio button for the “Enable streaming video through…” and click Ok

      Reply
  • Connor Gurney

    December 20, 2017

    As much as the ability to disable O365 Video had little use outside of release management previously, it now helps also if you want to direct users to Stream as we’re doing. Shame there’s no way to migrate though.

    -C

    Reply
  • Charles

    December 23, 2017

    I find it confusing that we have both Video and Stream links available. These instructions would shutdown Stream use of Azure storage as well. Any suggestions how to deactivate Video but keep Stream?

    Reply

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