Use automated policies in ShareGate Protect to take recurring governance actions on your Microsoft 365 tenant.
Once active, a policy runs once a day, finds content that matches your conditions, and performs the configured action automatically.
ShareGate Protect supports three policy types: Workspaces, OneDrives, and Sharing Links.
How policies work
Each policy has three parts:
Trigger: ShareGate Protect checks your tenant once a day for content that matches your conditions.
Conditions: Rules that define which workspaces, OneDrives, or sharing links the policy targets. As you add conditions, ShareGate Protect shows how many items currently match.
Action: What happens to matched items when the policy runs.
Policy types and actions
The available actions depend on the policy type you select.
Workspaces
Workspace policies target sites, groups, and teams. These actions are available:
Archive workspaces: Makes matched workspaces read-only. Archived workspaces can be restored from the SharePoint admin center.
Delete workspaces: Permanently removes matched workspaces and their content.
Remove EEEU permissions: Removes site-level permissions granted to Everyone except external users (EEEU).
Set version limit: Controls how many file versions SharePoint keeps on matched workspaces.
Trim version history: Deletes file versions beyond a limit you set, either a number of major versions to keep or an age in days.
Note: Archiving workspaces requires Microsoft 365 Archive to be active in your tenant. See Archive workspaces in ShareGate Protect for setup details.
OneDrives
OneDrive policies target users' OneDrives. These actions are available:
Delete OneDrives: Permanently removes matched OneDrives and their content.
Set version limit: Controls how many file versions SharePoint keeps on matched OneDrives.
Trim version history: Deletes file versions beyond a limit you set, either a number of major versions to keep or an age in days.
Warning: Trimmed file versions are permanently deleted and can't be restored. They don't go to the Recycle Bin.
To learn more about version limits and trimming, see Version Storage report in ShareGate Protect.
Sharing Links
Sharing Links policies target sharing links. Matched sharing links are automatically deleted when the policy runs.
Create a policy
Click Create new policy and select the policy type: Workspaces, OneDrives, or Sharing Links.
Click the pencil icon next to the default title to give your policy a name.
Define your conditions. Select Add rule to add filters. As you add rules, ShareGate Protect shows how many items currently match.
Select the number of matched items to open a preview report in a new tab and review the list before activating.
Select an action.
Save the policy as inactive (draft) or launch it immediately.
Note: When you create a policy from a sharing link-related Insight, that Insight's default rule is included automatically and cannot be removed.
Conditions you can use
The properties you can use as conditions depend on the policy type.
Workspaces
Workspace details: Display name, Associated workloads, and Latest activity.
Storage: Storage used, Storage quota, and File count.
Version storage: Version storage, Version / Quota %, Version / Site Storage %, and Version limit.
Sharing links: Total sharing links, Anyone links, People in your org links, Internal people links, and External people links.
Connected site properties: For example, External sharing setting, Template, and the number of owners, members, and guests.
OneDrives
OneDrive details: Display name, Web URL, Last activity, and External sharing setting.
Storage: Storage used, Storage quota, and File count.
Version storage: Version storage, Version / Quota %, Version / Site Storage %, and Version limit.
Sharing links: Total sharing links, Anyone links, People in your org links, Internal people links, and External people links.
Permissions: Broken inheritance entities count.
Sharing Links
File: File name, File URL, and File type.
Link settings: Link type, Permission level, Has password, and Expiration date.
Sharing details: Link created on, Created by, Shared with, and Shared with count.
Connected site properties: For example, External sharing setting, Template, and the number of owners, members, and guests.
Activate a policy
When launching a policy, ShareGate Protect shows how many items currently match your conditions and what action will run. Select I understand the risk to confirm and launch.
You can also activate or pause a policy at any time from the Policies tab by toggling the switch on the policy card.
Manage your policies
Policies are displayed as cards in the Policies tab. Each card shows the policy's trigger, conditions, action, and current status.
From the three-dots menu on a policy card, you can:
Edit the policy's name and conditions.
View activity (opens the Activity Log filtered to all actions performed by that policy).
Delete the policy.
Track policy activity
All policy actions are recorded in the Activity Log alongside manual actions. Each entry shows the date, action performed, objects involved, and the policy name.
Use the Source filter in the Activity Log to display policy actions separately from manual actions.
Limitations
Conditions are additive: items must match all configured rules.
Actions performed by a policy cannot be undone.
Policies cannot dispatch notifications to end-users.
There is no option to configure a custom schedule.