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What happens to previous file versions

The one tick that decides whether a run frees any space at all

Archiving moves the LATEST contents of a file into your storage and leaves a placeholder in its place. A file's older versions are a separate store inside SharePoint, they are never archived, and what happens to them is the one question the options step asks about them.

Makes changes. Recycling previous versions sends them to the site's recycle bin.
On this page What it does How it runs What you need What it will not do Read next

What it does

  • ONLY THE LATEST CONTENT IS ARCHIVED, whichever way the tick is set. Older versions are not uploaded, not placed in your storage, and not reachable through a placeholder. This is not a setting.
  • RECYCLE THEM (ticked for a new run) sends the older versions to the SharePoint site's recycle bin. That is what actually frees space, and it is the only genuinely destructive answer on the step.
  • LEAVE THEM (untick it) keeps every older version where it is. Those versions still hold the original file content, and they still consume SharePoint storage, so archiving the latest file alone may free little or nothing.
  • A RECYCLED VERSION IS NOT GONE YET. It sits in the site's recycle bin and keeps consuming storage until somebody empties that bin. ShareMaster does not empty it, and storage totals can take a while to update after it is emptied.
  • THE PLACEHOLDER IS KEPT either way. Recycling previous versions never touches the current file, which is the one the placeholder stands in for.
  • REPORT ONLY NEVER CHANGES VERSION HISTORY. A report reads and writes nothing, so this tick has no effect on one.
  • A RESTORE BRINGS BACK THE FILE, NOT ITS RECYCLED VERSIONS. Putting a placeholder back restores the content that was archived; versions that were recycled have to be recovered from SharePoint's own recycle bin, separately.

How it runs

  1. Decide before the run, not after. The tick is on the options step, and a schedule is asked the same question once rather than at 2am. There is no way to recycle the versions of files a previous run already archived.
  2. The run archives the latest content. Every qualifying file is uploaded and verified before its original is replaced. Versions are not part of that upload.
  3. Then, if you ticked it, the older versions are recycled. They go to the site's recycle bin. The current file, now a placeholder, stays.
  4. Empty the bin when you are satisfied. Until that happens the space is still counted against the site. ShareMaster will not do it for you, because a bin is the last copy of anything somebody deleted by mistake.

What you need

  • Nothing beyond what an archive run already needs. The tick changes what the run does, not what it can reach.

What it will not do

  • Version history is not counted when the size floor decides whether a file is worth archiving. A 2 MB file with 500 versions is a lot of storage that rule does not see.
  • There is no per-library or per-file choice. The answer applies to the whole run.
  • ShareMaster never empties a recycle bin, so recycling versions does not by itself return the space to your tenant.

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