How can I control the storage space used by a file which is edited daily?

Question

We have several large data files which are edited daily by multiple people. When viewing the one of these files in the details SharePoint shows it as being 7.14GB, however, when using the Storage Matrix it is shown as 418.3GB. This I understand is due to the multiple versions which are created every time a user saves the file. With four such files we are using more than 1TB of storage. Is there any way to control this or limit the number of versions that are preserved or the time frame over which they are preserved?

Answer 1

Hi @Sue Mellor,

Welcome to the Microsoft Q&A forum and thank you for reaching out with your question about managing storage usage for frequently edited files in SharePoint.

Based on the details you shared, your interpretation of how versioning contributes to storage use appears to be consistent with SharePoint’s behavior. Frequent edits to large files can lead to multiple stored versions in SharePoint, which may add up and impact total storage usage over time. To expand on this further, you may refer to the information and links provided in the Q&A Assist response, as they offer useful context about how version history is handled in SharePoint and how versioning settings can influence storage usage over time.

Additionally, if you would like to manage this at the organization level, you can follow the steps in the following article to configure how many versions are preserved or for how long they are retained for new document libraries.: Set default organization version limits - SharePoint in Microsoft 365 | Microsoft Learn.

(Please note that this action must be performed by a Global Admin or SharePoint Admin.)

I hope this information is useful. Thank you for taking the time to raise this question. If you need any further clarification or assistance, please feel free to leave a comment under this post.

Thank you for your contributions to the forum.

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Answer 2

To control the storage space used by files that are edited daily in SharePoint, you can manage the versioning settings for your document libraries. Here are some options:

1. Automatic Versioning: This setting optimizes storage by keeping versions based on their creation date. Older versions are purged as they age, which helps in reducing the overall storage used. This is the recommended approach as it balances access to recent versions while managing storage effectively.
2. Manual Versioning with Limits: You can set specific limits on the number of major versions to keep and an expiration period for older versions. For example, you can configure the library to retain only the last 100 versions or to delete versions older than a certain number of days. This helps in controlling the storage used by limiting the number of versions that are preserved.
3. Evaluate Versioning Needs: Consider whether all files need to retain a large number of versions. If certain files are less critical, you might opt for fewer versions or even no versioning for those specific files.
4. Run a What-if Analysis: Before making changes, you can run a ‘What-if’ analysis report on your document library to understand the potential impact of changing version limits on storage usage.

By adjusting these settings, you can significantly reduce the amount of storage consumed by version history for your frequently edited files.

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References:

• Plan version storage on document libraries
• Changes to the default versioning setting for SharePoint Online document libraries