Archive old SharePoint data to free up space - Deep dive

TLDR

Archiving old, inactive content is one of the most effective SharePoint storage cleanup strategies. By first identifying which sites and files are no longer actively used and then moving them to cheaper archive storage, you can free up significant space (and avoid paying for more SharePoint storage).

The key is knowing what to archive – for example, whole project sites with no activity in a year, or large files that haven’t been opened or updated in ages – and using Microsoft 365 Archive to relocate that data out of your active environment. This way, you preserve important information for compliance or future reference, while drastically shrinking your active storage footprint and costs.

Why archiving old data is crucial for SharePoint storage cleanup

Storing everything in SharePoint forever is unsustainable. SharePoint sites tend to accumulate files, versions, and stale content over time, which drives up storage expenses. When you get close to your storage limit, you generally have three options to deal with older content:

• Buy more storage: A quick fix but expensive. For example, purchasing an extra 500 GB of SharePoint space costs around $100 per month. This approach doesn’t address the underlying data bloat problem – it just delays it, as that new space will likely fill up too
• Delete old data: Free and immediate, so it’s great for truly useless content that has zero value. However, deletion is risky if you accidentally remove something that has compliance or historical importance. Once deleted (and past the recycle bin period), the content is gone for good, which might not be acceptable if it’s needed later.
• Archive inactive data: Archiving is a “best of both worlds” solution: you retain the data (keeping it for future needs or legal retention) but move it out of active SharePoint storage. Archived content no longer counts against your primary storage quota and resides in a much cheaper storage tier in Microsoft 365.

In most cases, archiving inactive SharePoint content offers the best balance. You avoid paying for endless storage growth, you reduce clutter in active sites, and you maintain access to information if it’s needed down the line. The next step is understanding what to archive.

How to identify which SharePoint content to archive

Archiving is only effective if you target the right content. Here are common signs that a site or file is an ideal candidate for archiving.

Inactive or unused sites

Often the biggest wins come from entire SharePoint sites that haven’t been touched in months. If a site shows no file edits, page views, or other user activity in, say, 6–12 months, it’s likely not needed in active circulation. Typical examples include:

• Completed project sites (e.g. a project concluded last year, and the site hasn’t been updated since).
• Legacy team or department sites that were replaced by newer sites (and the old one now sits idle).
• SharePoint sites for now-disbanded groups or past initiatives.

If no one has interacted with a site in over a year, it’s a strong archive candidate. Before archiving such a site, it’s good practice to notify the site owner (if there is one) or department, just in case the site is still needed in read-only form. But generally, truly inactive sites can be archived with minimal impact on users.

Large files with no recent use

Individual files can consume disproportionate storage, especially things like videos, high-resolution graphics, big data exports, or lengthy PowerPoint decks. Look for very large files that haven’t been opened or modified in a long time.

For example, a 700 MB training video from 2019 that hasn’t been viewed since 2020 is just sitting there wasting space. Such files are prime targets to archive (or possibly delete if truly unnecessary). Examples of large, stale files:

• Old video recordings, webinars, or training videos that are no longer in active use.
• Heavy design files (e.g. CAD drawings, large Photoshop files) from completed projects, not touched in years.
• Database exports, ZIP archives, or log files that were uploaded for one-time use and never accessed again.

To find these, you can use SProbot's Sites with large files review, which lists sites which contain large files and their version consumption.

Once you've identified sites with high consumption by large files, you can also view a detailed report of individual files per site to enable an informed decision (and then take action on individual files, or all).

Redundant, Obsolete, or Trivial (ROT) content

Not all old content is worth archiving; some of it shouldn’t be kept at all. ROT refers to data that is Redundant (duplicate or unnecessary copies), Obsolete (outdated information that’s no longer useful), or Trivial (no business value). Examples include:

• Duplicate files or multiple near-identical versions of a document scattered in different libraries.
• Outdated drafts or interim work documents that were never deleted after the final version was published.
• Irrelevant items that shouldn’t have been stored on SharePoint in the first place (e.g. personal photos, random test files, or old installers).

These ROT items clutter your environment and consume storage for no gain. They’re usually better to delete than to archive. Deleting ROT content (after verifying it’s truly not needed) gives you immediate space savings and a cleaner environment.

Tip: SProbot’s analytics include trivial content detection powered by AI. This can automatically flag files that appear to be personal, redundant, or otherwise low-value (for example, multiple copies of a file, or .exe installer files in document libraries). Using these insights, you can quickly pinpoint ROT content and decide to remove it.

Compliance or record-keeping data

Some content is kept “just in case” due to legal, regulatory, or policy requirements. This might include things like:

• Past financial records and audit documents that need to be retained for X years.
• Executed contracts or legal agreements that are no longer active but must be stored for compliance.
• Employee records or historical policy documents that aren’t referenced day-to-day but are kept for governance.

These types of data are often not used actively, yet you’re not allowed to delete them until a certain retention period passes. Archiving is ideal here.

By archiving compliance data, you satisfy the retention requirement (the data stays in your environment and is still discoverable for legal purposes) while freeing up your active SharePoint storage. For example, instead of keeping five-year-old contract files in a live team site, you can archive them. They’ll reside in the low-cost archive tier, accessible to admins if needed but out of the way for everyday users.

Orphaned or ownerless content

Content becomes orphaned when its owner or primary users have left the organization or moved on to other projects, and no one else has taken ownership. Examples:

• A SharePoint site created by an employee who has since left, where no one else is actively maintaining the content.
• A project site for a completed project, where the project lead (site owner) is no longer involved and the team has disbanded.
• Personal or ad-hoc libraries that were created for convenience, then abandoned.

Orphaned sites tend to stagnate — no updates, no permissions maintenance — which usually makes them inactive over time. These should be reviewed promptly. In many cases, if the content isn’t of obvious value, it can be deleted after some retention interval. If the content is worth saving (maybe it contains useful knowledge or records), archiving the site is a good solution. This way the data is preserved in case someone needs it, but it’s not using up primary storage or showing up in searches.

Tip: It’s a good practice to have a process for orphaned sites. Many organizations implement a policy to either assign a new owner or archive/delete an orphaned site after a certain period of inactivity. You can use Site Access Reviews (part of Data Access Governance in SharePoint Advanced Management) to achieve this, or if you need to quickly clean up, use SProbot's orphan reporting.

Methods to archive old SharePoint data

Now that you have a list of what needs to be archived, how do you actually go about archiving it? SharePoint offers built-in archiving capabilities, and there are also manual approaches. Here are the primary methods:

Using Microsoft 365 Archive

The easiest and most powerful option is Microsoft 365 Archive. It moves data to a “cold” storage tier inside your tenant with various controls remaining in place. Key points about using this feature:

Levels of archiving available

You can either archive an entire site, or from July 2026, individual files using the built-in functionality in Microsoft 365 Archive.

Level 1 - Archive a site

‍In the SharePoint admin center, you can select an active site and choose Archive. The site and all its content will be moved to the archive tier. Archived sites are listed under a separate “Archived sites” view for admins. Once archived, the site becomes read-only and inaccessible to end users (if a user tries to visit it, they’ll see a notice that the site is archived). The site also no longer appears in SharePoint home or search results. Administrators, however, can easily reactivate the site later from the admin center if needed (bringing it back to Active sites). Archiving typically completes within minutes, regardless of site size, and can be done during working hours with minimal disruption.

Level 2 - Archive individual files

File-level archiving (general availability July 2026) allows archiving one or multiple specific files within a site. For example, a site owner can archive a 500 MB file that’s no longer needed live, without archiving the whole site. In the document library, the file shows an “archived” status icon and is read-only. Users aren't able to open it until it has been reactivated.

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Data preservation

When you archive content (site or file), nothing is deleted. All metadata, version history, and permissions are retained. Archived sites/files remain under any applicable retention policies or legal holds. In other words, archiving doesn’t circumvent compliance requirements – it simply changes the storage location and accessibility.

From a compliance perspective, archived data is still discoverable via eDiscovery and content search. If a legal hold is placed on a user or keyword, it will include content in the archive as well.

Effect on storage quotas

Archived content no longer counts against your active SharePoint storage quota. This is a major benefit – by archiving, say, 100 GB of old data, you immediately reduce your active storage consumption by 100 GB. That could bring you back under your licensed quota and delay or eliminate the need to purchase more storage.

Note:  if you look at an individual site’s storage usage in SharePoint UI, an archived file still shows up in the site’s storage total. The savings occur at the tenant level: your tenant’s “Active storage” decreases and “Archived storage” increases correspondingly.

Cost model

Storing data in the Microsoft 365 Archive tier is much cheaper than standard SharePoint storage. Microsoft charges $0.05 per GB per month for archived data (cold storage), which is roughly 75% less than the ~$0.20 per GB per month for additional SharePoint storage.

But, crucially – you only pay for archived storage if your combined (active + archived) storage exceeds your included SharePoint quota. If your total data remains within the quota you already have from your licenses, archiving costs you nothing extra (you aren’t double-charged for moving data to archive).

You can use the calculator below to see this effect of this allocation logic and determine your net savings.

No reactivation fees

Microsoft used to charge a data rehydration fee for archive (around $0.60/GB to restore archived sites), but as of March 31, 2025, all reactivation fees have been eliminated. Restoring an archived site or file is now free of charge. The only limitation is that once you reactivate content, you must wait 4 months before archiving that same content again (to prevent frequent toggling to skirt charges).

In practice, this isn’t a big issue – archive is intended for data you plan to keep cold for a while. If something was archived and unexpectedly needs to be active again long-term, you can restore it, and perhaps archive it again later down the road.

Alternative archiving approaches

If Microsoft 365 Archive isn’t available to you (for example, if it’s not enabled in your tenant) or if you have specific reasons to use other methods, consider these approaches:

Manual archive libraries/sites

You can create your own Archive area in SharePoint to move old content. For instance, you might have an “Archive” site collection where you manually copy or move documents that are no longer active. Alternatively, within a large site you could create an “Archive” document library and relocate older files there. This approach gets the old content out of the way of day-to-day work, which can help with usability (users aren’t seeing ancient files mixed with current ones).

But.... This does not reduce your overall storage usage or costs, because the data is still in SharePoint’s active storage. It’s essentially just an organizational move. Use this method if your goal is to declutter active sites for users.‍

Move to external storage

Another option is to take very old content out of SharePoint entirely. For example, you could export a document library or site contents to an offline backup (like download to a file server, external drive, or an Azure Blob storage container configured for cheap archival storage).

After verifying the data is safely stored elsewhere, you would delete it from SharePoint, thus freeing up that space completely. Anyone who needs it would have to go through whatever external archive system you set up (which might be as primitive as contacting IT for the files). Also, you must ensure the external storage is secure and backed up.

This method is generally only advisable for content you are nearly certain you won’t need but must keep a copy of “just in case,” and when Microsoft 365 Archive isn’t an option (or if the data is so large and cold that even $0.05/GB is deemed too costly).

Retention labels/policies

Microsoft Purview provides retention tools that can automatically delete or retain content based on age. For example, you might have a policy that deletes documents 10 years after creation unless labeled as a record. While not an “archive” in the sense of moving to cheaper storage, these policies can help ensure old content is disposed of when it’s no longer required. This indirectly can save storage in the long run by eventually purging stale data.

But be careful: a retention policy that deletes content after X years will remove it entirely (no copy kept), which might not be what you want if you prefer to keep the data somewhere. Also, retention policies do nothing to lower costs while the content exists; they just schedule its deletion.

Use retention rules in combination with archiving: for instance, archive content after 2 years of inactivity, then have a retention policy delete it after, say, 7 years in archive. One thing retention labels can do is mark certain content as “Records” (immovable) to prevent deletion; this can complement archiving by ensuring those items are archived rather than deleted. Overall, think of retention policies as a compliance mechanism, whereas archiving is a storage optimization mechanism.

Plan your archiving workflow

To make archiving effective, incorporate it into your regular IT routine. Here’s a suggested workflow:

1. Define archive criteria and timing: Establish what “inactive” means for your organization. For example, you might decide: any project site inactive for 24 months should be archived; any file over 500 MB that hasn’t been modified in 18 months should be archived; etc. Include compliance requirements in these rules (e.g., “financial records are archived after 1 year of no activity and deleted after 7 years unless under legal hold”).
2. Use tools to identify candidates: Don’t manually hunt through each site — leverage reports and tools. The SharePoint admin center gives basic insight (activity dates, storage by site). SProbot can significantly speed this up with more granular reports.
3. Review and verify: Before taking action, do a quick sanity check. For sites: reach out to the site owners or relevant team to confirm those sites aren’t needed anymore (occasionally you might discover a site is inactive but its content is still being referenced; in such cases, maybe archive is still fine, but at least people are informed). For files: ensure that an old file isn’t some critical piece a system depends on (rare, but for example, an old Excel that a Power BI report pulls data from – you’d want to know that before archiving it). This step helps avoid surprises and builds trust with users that IT isn’t just “making things disappear.”
4. Archive (or delete) and document: Proceed to archive the identified content using Microsoft 365 Archive for sites/files, and delete any ROT content that you’re confident can be removed. Keep a simple log of what you archived and when (you might note site name, archive date, and maybe expected retention period or review date). The SharePoint admin center will show archived sites, and SProbot’s reports will update to reflect reduced active storage and cost, but having a separate record is useful for governance.
5. Monitor storage and repeat: After archiving, monitor your SharePoint storage consumption. You should see a drop in active storage. Over time, new content will of course start to fill space again, but with an archiving practice in place, you have a cycle to continually keep it in check. Make archiving reviews a regular task (set reminders for your chosen interval). Each cycle, you’ll catch the next batch of stale content. Also, periodically revisit your criteria – they might need adjustments if, say, business usage patterns change or Microsoft introduces new tools (for example, if auto-archiving policies become available, incorporate those).

By following a plan like this, archiving becomes a routine maintenance task rather than a one-off emergency move. This proactive approach prevents the accumulation of content clutter and ensures your SharePoint stays lean and efficient.

How SProbot helps identify archive candidates

Performing the above steps manually—especially in a large SharePoint environment—can be very time-consuming. SProbot is designed to streamline the identification of storage issues, including finding content that is ripe for archiving. Here’s how SProbot can assist:

Tenant-wide storage overview

SProbot provides a health check that shows a variety of storage and activity metrics. This bird’s-eye view helps you quickly spot which sites and files are usage the most space. Often, a small percentage of sites consume a large chunk of storage. Among those, you might find candidates for archiving.

Inactive file identification

SProbot surfaces inactive files across your tenant, regardless of which sites they reside in. As covered earlier in this article, inactive and outdated content often makes up a large percentage of otherwise active sites.

The Sites with many inactive files review lists sites which have a high percentage of inactive file, even thought the sites themselves may be active. It also counts files which may have been missed by the SharePoint admin center's standard Files column.

You can then drill into specific sites to get a full view of their inactive files.

Large files and storage breakdown

‍With SProbot, you can see in which sites the largest files in your tenant reside, and how much storage is consumed by their versioning.This is useful to pinpoint those multi-hundred-gigabyte files that are just sitting there.

Additionally, SProbot can show you storage breakdowns within a site (e.g., which libraries or file types are consuming the most space). These insights let you zero in on things like an old video library or a massive PDF that you might otherwise overlook.

Detecting trivial content

SProbot’s AI plan includes the ability to detect trivial content. For instance, it can flag content that looks like personal data (like .MP3 files or large .ZIPs of photos) which likely shouldn’t be in SharePoint. You can review and decide what to delete or archive. This means you’re not spending hours crawling through libraries to find junk – the tool surfaces it for you.

FAQs

• Q: Should we archive old SharePoint content, or just delete it outright?A: It depends on the content’s future value. If data has no conceivable use going forward (truly redundant or trivial information), then deleting it is the best way to free up space. But if there’s any chance it might be needed later – or if you have to keep it for compliance – you should archive it rather than delete it.
  • Deleting content removes it permanently (after the recycle bin period), which is fine for junk but risky if you later realize you needed that information. Always double-check that data is non-essential before deletion, especially in a business context.
  • Archiving content preserves the data in a low-cost, off-production storage tier. You won’t see it day to day, but it’s there if needed. This is ideal for “just in case” information: you don’t clutter your active sites, but you have peace of mind that nothing important was lost. Many organizations adopt a mix: delete the obvious trash, archive the rest of the old-but-valuable stuff.
• Q: Can end users still access or search for content after it’s archived?A: No, not in the usual way. Once a SharePoint site or file is archived via Microsoft 365 Archive, it’s removed from user view.
  • Archived sites won’t appear on SharePoint home or in navigation. If a user had a direct link, it would show an “Archived – not available” type message instead of the content. The content is also omitted from Microsoft Search and from tools like Microsoft 365 Copilot (so archived files won’t come up in chat answers, etc.).
  • However, the content isn’t gone: it’s still stored in your tenant. Admins with the right permissions can find archived content via the SharePoint Admin Center (in the Archived sites list) and can restore it. Moreover, archived data remains eDiscoverable – for example, if there’s an eDiscovery or content search for a legal case, it will surface matches in archived content just as it would in active content. So, from a compliance standpoint, the data is still accessible to the organization, but end users won’t be able to browse or search it until it’s un-archived.
• Q: Does using Microsoft 365 Archive cost extra, or require a special license?A: The Archive feature is included with SharePoint Online (no separate license needed), but archived storage can incur a small cost if you exceed your normal storage quota.
  • No additional license: Every Microsoft 365 tenant with SharePoint can use archiving. You just need to activate it in the admin center and associate an Azure subscription for billing. There isn’t a premium SKU for this – it’s available on standard plans (Enterprise, etc.).
  • Lower storage fees: Microsoft 365 Archive storage is billed at roughly $0.05 per GB per month, which is about a quarter of the cost of standard SharePoint storage (~$0.20 per GB per month) (https://www.orchestry.com/insight/m365-file-archive-pricing). This means archived data is much cheaper to keep compared to keeping it in active SharePoint.
  • Only if you exceed quota: Here’s the great part – if your total stored data (active + archived) is within the quota that comes with your licenses, you pay nothing for archive. You only start paying that $0.05/GB for the portion of data that is beyond your included SharePoint storage capacity. For example, if your tenant has 1000 GB of storage included and you have 900 GB active + 200 GB archived = 1100 GB total, you’d pay for 100 GB at the archive rate (since 100 GB is over quota). If you were at 900 GB active + 50 GB archived = 950 GB (under quota), you’d pay $0. [learn.microsoft.com], [orchestry.com]
  • No reactivation fees: Reactivating archived sites/files is free. Microsoft eliminated reactivation fees in 2025, so you won’t be charged if you need to restore something from the archive. [learn.microsoft.com]
• Q: Can I archive OneDrive content to free up space?A: No, Microsoft 365 Archive currently applies only to SharePoint (including Teams channel files, which are stored in SharePoint). There is no equivalent archive feature for individual OneDrive accounts.
  • OneDrive for Business storage is tied to each user. To clean up OneDrive space, users or admins have to manually delete or move files, or use retention policies to remove inactive content. Microsoft’s archive tool won’t help with personal OneDrives.
  • If an employee leaves the company, their OneDrive can be retained as an “inactive mailbox/OneDrive” for compliance, but that’s a different mechanism (and that preserved data still counts against storage). It’s not a cold storage tier, just a static preservation. So in terms of storage management, focus Microsoft 365 Archive on SharePoint sites; for OneDrives, implement good lifecycle policies and user education on cleanup.

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