OneDrive and Sharepoint Versioning

What is changing? 

We are enabling Microsoft’s Automatic Version Management for OneDrive and SharePoint. 

This controls how many historic versions of a file are kept over time, using Microsoft’s recommended approach.  

Are my files being deleted? 

No.  

Your files stay exactly where they are.  

Only older historic versions of files are reduced — and even then, a minimum number of versions is always kept.  

No current file content is deleted.  

How many versions will be kept? 

Each file will always keep at least 17 versions. 

If a file is edited frequently, it will temporarily keep many more versions.  

As activity reduces over time, older versions are gradually removed by Microsoft in the background. 

Will this affect files I’m actively working on? 

No. 

Files that are actively edited will continue to retain many versions. Most people won’t notice any difference. 

Why are we doing this? 

Historic file versions now account for around 240TB of storage, costing approximately £30,000 per year.  

This cost increases every year if no action is taken. 

Microsoft estimates Automatic Version Management can reduce storage usage by up to 90%, helping bring annual costs down to approximately £3,000 and ensuring sustainable use of University resources.

Do I have to use Automatic versions?

There is an exception request process to follow.