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Does a minimum size make archiving faster?

Only when the location holds a lot of small files

Archiving a file takes about the same time whatever its size: it is read, uploaded, checked and replaced with a placeholder, and most of that time is spent talking to SharePoint rather than moving bytes. So a location full of small files - photos, scans, short documents - can take a long time while freeing little space. A minimum size leaves those small files where they are and spends the run on the files that hold the space.

Reads only. Nothing in SharePoint is changed.
On this page What it tells you How it runs What you need What it will not do Read next

What it tells you

  • IT ONLY HELPS WHEN THERE ARE MANY SMALL FILES. If most files in the location are already a megabyte or more, a minimum skips few of them and the run takes about as long. If half of them are under 100 KB, it can roughly halve the run.
  • 0.1 MB (100 KB) IS A GOOD FIRST STEP. On one real library, files under 100 KB were 53% of the files but 8% of the data: skipping them roughly doubled the space freed per hour and gave up very little.
  • 1 MB GOES FURTHER. On the same library, files of 1 MB and over were 6% of the files and 45% of the data - nearly half the saving for a small fraction of the time.
  • THE SMALL FILES ARE NOT LOST, JUST LEFT. They stay in SharePoint as they are. A later run with a lower minimum, or none, archives them; files already archived are skipped.
  • FILES UNDER 4 KB ARE ALREADY LEFT ALONE, because a placeholder would save nothing - unless you tick "Also archive files under 4 KB".

How it runs

  1. Find out what the location holds. Run Report only first. Its list shows every file and its size, so you can see whether small files make up most of it.
  2. Set the minimum on the options step. Untick "Archive all files", then type the size in MB: 0.1 for 100 KB, 1 for 1 MB.
  3. Archive the rest later if you want to. Lower the minimum on a later run. Nothing archived the first time is done twice.

What you need

  • Nothing extra. The minimum only changes which files the run picks.

What it will not do

  • The size is the file's current size. Older versions are not counted, so a small file with a long version history can still hold a lot of space.
  • A minimum does not make each file faster. It makes the run shorter by archiving fewer files.

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