Clean up large files

SProbot's large file report with version cleanup enables you to review and choose to trim unnecessary older versions of large files, or entirely delete large files which are obsolete or do not belong in SharePoint in the first place. Using the cleanup tool enables you to save on storage quickly and efficiently.

Why should large files be reviewed?

End-users are very often unaware of the impact of the files they upload to SharePoint. Specifically, they usually don't realise that:

• Very large files have a significant impact on storage costs at high quantities.
• Each edit of a very large file results in an additional version of the same size or larger if no content is removed from it.

In some cases, people store content such as Outlook PSTs and non-work-related media files such as personal videos in team sites. This content should not be in SharePoint to begin with.

How do you use the large file cleanup tool?

To select a site to cleanup up, you have a few options

• Choose one of the sites which contains large files using Reports > Reviews > Sites with large files‍
• If you've previously worked on a site and know that it contains large files, find it using Cleanup > Search

In the site you've selected to clean up, use the Content tab to view the large file report.

In the example below, the Silenus Fund Management site has been flagged for storage review because it's one of the 25 fastest growing sites on the tenant, and contains 1362 large files (over 50MB).

Viewing the report shows that:

• There are 1362 files with a latest version over 50 MB
• The total latest version size of these 551 files is 177.19 GB
• The total size of all versions of these files is 7681.72 GB

If you are looking for specific files you suspect might be present, you can search within these results, or filter to people, extensions, or size thresholds.

You can also export the full results of the report using Download CSV.

Delete large files

Often, you’ll discover outliers like huge video files, database backups, PSTs, or other heavy content that might be better stored elsewhere (or not at all). If you've identified files which should not be in the site at all, you can directly select and delete them using the Cleanup > Delete entirely action in the toolbar.

Deleting files this way sends them to the site's recycle bin, where they are retained normally until they are automatically cleared. If you need to free up storage immediately, you will need to delete them from the recycle bin.

Trim large file version history

Trimming version history can reclaim storage immediately – unlike deleting entire files or sites, deleting file versions bypasses the recycle bin; the space is freed at once without waiting for a retention period.

In our example, keeping only the latest version of Excalibur requirements discussion.pptx will save just over 58GB of storage (all versions total of 59364MB minus latest version 353MB = 57.62GB).

If you select to keep only the latest version (you can do this for multiple files), you'll need to confirm the action. Important: version deletions are immediate and permanent, unlike deletion of items in their entirety, which result in the item being moved to the recycle bin.

Once confirmed, the cleanup action is added to the queue for processing and is shown in Activity history.