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Overview
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Offloading
Set up custom offload conditions
Create Policy management rules
Restoring
1 click restore
Restore whole sites and libraries
Automation
Schedule your offload conditions
Reduce file versioning from 500 to 1
Automated alerting
Reporting
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Insights with the reporting feature
Trace your offloaded data
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User documentation
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SharePoint storage optimization
Strategies to reduce SharePoint storage costs
Case study
How a customer saved 20TB SharePoint storage
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Best practices, news & updates

SharePoint storage optimization

This page shows you what consumes storage and how to reduce SharePoint storage. Learn step by step:

  • What actually consumes space
  • Which settings and cleanup actions make a real difference
  • How to keep SharePoint usable without breaking user workflows

If you want the full framework, examples, and checklists, you can also download our SharePoint storage guide:

Get storage guide now

What consumes SharePoint storage

Before you fix anything, you need visibility. In most tenants, storage growth comes from a few repeat offenders:

1. Large SharePoint sites no one owns anymore

Old project sites, migrated file shares, Teams sites that never got cleaned up. They look harmless, until you add them up. Often you don't need these pages regularly, but just in case, they need to be kept or there are security reasons for doing so.

Deep dive: Identify large SharePoint sites

2. Large files with endless versions

By default, SharePoint happily stores hundreds of versions per file. That’s great for collaboration, terrible for storage. A single PowerPoint with 300 versions can easily consume more space than an entire document library.

Deep dive: Identify large file versions in SharePoint

3. Over-engineered versioning settings

Many libraries use default or inherited versioning settings that no longer match reality. If your users don’t need 500 versions, you’re paying for them anyway. But fortunately, these settings can be easily adjusted and changed. 

Deep dive: SharePoint versioning settings

4. “Just in case” data that is never accessed

Files that haven’t been opened in years still sit in premium SharePoint storage, even though they’re basically archive data. That’s not collaboration data anymore. Never underestimate data that you store but never use or need. In reality, companies often have large amounts of cold data. That’s cold storage pretending to be hot.

Optimize your SharePoint storage with the following steps

You can save a lot of SharePoint storage with a few simple steps. Here you can see a summary of these steps. For more details, we recommend clicking on the relevant articles. 

Step 1: Get transparency into your SharePoint storage usage

You can’t manage what you can’t see. Theerfore you should start with: 

  • SharePoint storage metrics
  • Usage reports
  • Site-level consumption trends

This helps you answer:

  • Which sites grow fastest?
  • Which libraries contain oversized files?
  • Where cleanup will have the biggest impact?

Step 2: Stop storage waste, without breaking SharePoint

Delete old file versions safely. One of the fastest wins: remove old versions and keep only what’s needed. You can:

  • Reduce versions from hundreds down to a reasonable number
  • Keep only the latest version for selected libraries

This  can free up double-digit percentages of storage.

Deep dive: Delete file versions in SharePoint

Step 3: Understand the real cost of SharePoint storage

Microsoft doesn’t make SharePoint storage pricing obvious but it adds up quickly. Additional SharePoint storage is charged per TB, per month, and scales linearly with growth. Before you buy more storage, you should always ask:

  • How much of this data is actually active?
  • How much could live cheaper elsewhere?

Deep dive: SharePoint storage cost per GB or TB

Step 4: Reduce SharePoint storage without changing how users work

At some point, cleanup alone isn’t enough. You need a storage strategy, not a recurring firefight. This is where many admins hit a wall:

  • Deleting data upsets users
  • Moving data breaks links
  • Archiving makes files “disappear”

A sustainable approach keeps:

  • Files visible in SharePoint
  • Metadata and permissions intact
  • Access simple for users

How ShArc helps you to reduce SharePoint storage long-term

ShArc moves rarely used files out of expensive SharePoint storage into Azure Blob Storage — while keeping lightweight stub files in SharePoint.

From a user perspective:

  • files stay in the same libraries,
  • nothing disappears,
  • one click restores the file when needed.

From an IT perspective:

  • SharePoint storage stops growing uncontrollably,
  • costs drop significantly,
  • and cleanup becomes policy-driven instead of manual.

This turns SharePoint storage from a cost risk into something you can actually control.

Download SharePoint storage guide as PDF

The SharePoint storage guide walks you through the strategies top IT teams use to reduce extra storage costs by at least 50% while keeping Teams, SharePoint, and OneDrive running just as your users expect. It’s a practical, vendor-neutral resource packed with real-world insights, hands-on steps, and clear decision frameworks.

 

What’s Inside

  • Reasons your storage keeps exploding: versioning, data silos and unstructured team spaces, ROT data 

  • Proven offloading and lifecycle concepts based on SharePoint architecture

  • When to use Microsoft’s native archive features versus when to optimize with offloading strategies

  • ROI breakdown, example calculations for mid-sized environments, hidden operational savings

  • A step-by-step roadmap to reduce storage safely, with minimal admin effort

  • Scripts, templates, and checklists you can plug in right away 


Why You Should Download It

Because the guide gives you what Microsoft’s documentation doesn’t: a clear, actionable strategy to control data growth before it becomes a cost problem.

And if SharePoint extra storage has become a cost trap or a performance drag, this guide gives you the straight, workable path to getting it under control.



Perfect for IT Admins, Architects & CIOs

To make your life easier, the guide also offers:

  • Ready-to-use PowerShell snippets

  • A 10-step offloading checklist

  • Pro tips to fold offloading into lifecycle, governance, and compliance

Get storage guide now