Overview
The SharePoint Archiving feature (also called Capacity Savings) allows administrators to optimize their Microsoft 365 storage by automatically archiving low-activity ("cold") SharePoint files.
Instead of permanently deleting old data, this feature converts eligible backed-up files into lightweight web links (URL stubs). This reclaims primary tenant storage space while ensuring the documents remain fully visible, searchable, and recoverable for your end users.
Prerequisites
To utilize SharePoint Archiving in your CrashPlan for Microsoft 365 environment, the following requirements must be met:
- Licensing: This is a premium add-on feature. It must be explicitly enabled on your tenant's product license.
- Authentication: A Microsoft 365 Administrator must grant explicit Consent for Capacity Savings within the CrashPlan console to authorize the storage optimization.
- Backup Status: Only files that are already successfully backed up by CrashPlan are eligible for archiving.
Scope and exclusions
To protect the integrity, navigation, and rendering of your SharePoint sites, Capacity Savings applies only to user-created document content.
Supported content includes:
- Files inside the default Documents library.
- Files inside custom document libraries created by administrators.
- Standard business files (e.g., PDF, DOCX, XLSX, JPEG, ZIP).
Excluded content
Certain SharePoint content is intentionally excluded from archiving,
even
if the file type would otherwise be eligible. Excluded content includes
Site
Assets, Form Templates, Site logos, Cover images, SharePoint Pages, Lists,
and Microsoft-managed system libraries. For example, a JPEG used as a
site
logo inside Site Assets will never be archived, while a JPEG stored in
a
standard Document library is eligible.
Policy-driven archival
Administrators do not need to manually select files for archiving. Instead, you define eligibility rules within your SharePoint Online Policy Configuration.
A file is only archived if it meets all of the enabled conditions:
- Storage Consumption Threshold: The individual SharePoint site exceeds a specific percentage of the tenant's total pooled SharePoint storage quota. (Note: Because a single large site may consume the majority of a tenant's pooled storage, administrators can set this threshold very low, such as 1%, to ensure large sites are optimized).
- Inactivity Duration: The document has not been modified for a set number of days.
- File Size: The document exceeds a minimum size limit.
Execution modes
To ensure complete control over your organization's data, archiving jobs operate in two distinct modes:
- Dry Run: A simulation mode. It evaluates your active policy against your current SharePoint data and generates a report estimating the number of eligible files and potential storage savings. No actual data is changed or stubbed during a Dry Run.
- Live Run: The active execution mode. It processes the eligible files, removes the data objects from primary SharePoint storage, and replaces them with URL stubs. You can run this manually or set the job to run automatically every 12 hours.
End user experience
Accessing archived files
After a Live Run, archived files remain visible in the user's SharePoint document library in their original folder structure. However, the files are converted into URL shortcuts (e.g., report.pdf.url), and their footprint is reduced to a few bytes.
When a user clicks the stubbed file, they are redirected to the CrashPlan console via Microsoft Single Sign-On (SSO) to view, download, or restore the file.
Important note regarding SharePoint Previews
When a user clicks a stubbed item directly inside SharePoint, Microsoft
may
initially attempt to open it in its native previewer. Because the file
is
now a .URL stub, SharePoint will likely display a message stating, "Can't
preview this file as it's not supported." To proceed to CrashPlan, simply
close the preview window and click the
item again. It will then redirect correctly.
Restoring files
Users can restore files directly from the CrashPlan console or via their My Backup Vault. By default, restoring an item removes the URL stub and places the original file back into its current location at its full original size.
Shared files
If a SharePoint file was shared with other internal users prior to archiving, those sharing permissions are strictly preserved on the stub. Shared users will also see the URL stub and can access the file via the CrashPlan console.
External Guest Access:
- Microsoft Accounts: If a stub is shared with an external guest who uses a Microsoft account, CrashPlan will automatically verify their Microsoft identity and grant scoped access to view the stub flow.
- Non-Microsoft Accounts: If shared with non-Microsoft external users, the stub cannot be resolved directly. The file must first be restored by the owner before it can be shared with non-Microsoft external users again.