Table of Contents
Move Individual Files to Microsoft 365 Archive
On March 30, Microsoft announced the public preview of file-level archiving for SharePoint Online. Put another way, Microsoft 365 Archive can now handle either complete sites or individual items chosen from other sites. Microsoft says that archiving individual documents is ideal for older project files, information about completed events, and reference material that needs to be retained but does not need to be immediately available.
Out-of-the-box, Microsoft enables file-level archiving when Microsoft 365 Archive is active in a tenant and the tenant-level setting for AllowFileArchive is true. If you want to disable file-level archiving for the tenant, run the Set-SPOTenant cmdlet to update AllowFileArchive to $false:
Set-SPOTenant -AllowFileArchive $false
Turning off file-level archiving at the tenant level removes the Archive option from menus. It does not affect files that are currently archived.
AllowFileArchive is also a supported site property whose default value is True. You can enable file level archiving for the tenant and disable the feature for selected sites by running the Set-SPOSite cmdlet to set the site-level setting to false:
Set-SPOSite -Identity “https://Office365itpros.sharepoint.com/sites/ProjectAlpha” -AllowFileArchive $false
The final setting to be aware of is AllowFileArchiveOnNewSitesByDefault. This is a tenant-level setting to determine if file-level archiving is enabled for new sites. By default, this setting is true.
Although OneDrive for Business is built on top of SharePoint Online, its user interface does not currently support file-level archiving.
Archiving Files
Archiving a file is simple. Choose one or more files and select the archive option (Figure 1). Currently, you cannot archive folders.
The archive option is available to any user with edit permissions for a site. This means that any member of a Microsoft 365 group (team) can archive files in the group’s site, which points to the need for some user training. Archiving is only supported through the SharePoint Online browser UI or Graph API. You can’t mark local copies of files for archiving and synchronize those changes to SharePoint Online with the OneDrive sync client.
File-level archiving does not currently support OneNote files, SharePoint pages, agents, or files in the Site Assets library.
Archived files remain visible in list and library views. The archiving process preserves file metadata, permissions, and version history. Archive status is a file property, so archived files can be moved, copied, renamed, or deleted. Other options like download, open, and share are unavailable until an archived file is reactivated. Purview retention policies process archived files, and any holds remain in force.
An archived file can be reactivated instantly for first seven days. After that period passes, background jobs move newly archived files from “hot” storage to “cold storage.” It can take “up to 24 hours” for the archived file to come back from cold storage (“rehydrate”). Microsoft doesn’t charge for reactivating an archived file.
Benefits of File-Level Archiving
When Microsoft shipped the initial release of Microsoft 365 Archive, the focus was firmly on reducing the cost of SharePoint Online storage by moving sites into special archive storage. Tenants don’t pay for archive storage if sufficient storage quota is available. If they do need to pay, “cold” archive storage is 75% cheaper than full-blown hot SharePoint Online storage.
Reducing the cost of storage is still important, but tenants that have embraced AI only to discover that their SharePoint deployment can throw up unexpected results have other concerns. Since the advent of Copilot and AI processing, removing outdated files that might contain incorrect or misleading information has become a critical factor for Copilot deployments. No one wants to have data that was accurate several years ago resurfacing because Microsoft 365 Copilot found an old file and used its content in its response. Archiving files means that they are removed from the Microsoft Search index and are therefore inaccessible to Copilot. In effect, archiving allows tenants to retain information that might still be valuable in a certain context without running the potential for regurgitation by Copilot. In addition, archived files are inaccessible to the Claude and OpenAI connectors for SharePoint and OneDrive.
Graph Access to Archived Files
As part of the roll-out of file-level archiving, Microsoft refreshed the Graph APIs for SharePoint Online to support listing archived files, archiving files, and unarchiving files. This topic deserves a separate discussion with examples, so I’ll follow up with another article in due course.
File-level archiving is a feature that just makes sense. Microsoft did the heavy lifting when they introduced site-level archiving. Pushing forward into file-level archiving allows users to get involved, and they know a lot more about what’s in files than administrators do, even site administrators. With Graph API support for automation, lots of possibilities open for what should be a very popular feature.
Learn about managing SharePoint Online and the rest of the Microsoft 365 ecosystem by subscribing to the Office 365 for IT Pros eBook. Use our experience to understand what’s important and how best to protect your tenant.