Use the Version Storage report in ShareGate Protect to see how much of your Microsoft 365 storage is consumed by file version history, set version limits on your workspaces, document libraries, and OneDrives, and trim existing versions. You can trim by count or by age.
Version history is one of the largest hidden drivers of SharePoint storage costs. Microsoft's defaults are generous, and older versions on dormant files accumulate indefinitely. The Version Storage report surfaces where the bloat is and gives you the actions to address it.
View version storage
The Version Storage report is in the Reduce costs section of ShareGate Protect. It shows version storage consumption per workspace and OneDrive, and you can expand a workspace to see its document libraries.
The following columns appear by default:
Workspace Name
Version Storage: total storage used by file versions in the workspace
Version / Site Storage %: version storage as a percentage of total site storage
Version Limit: the current version retention setting
You can add more columns from the column picker: Storage Quota, Version / Quota %, File count, Version Expiration, and Minor / Draft Version Limit.
The same columns and actions are available for OneDrives in the existing OneDrive reports.
Each workspace shows one of three version limit states in the Version Limit column:
Default: inherits the tenant-level version limit
Automatic: Microsoft manages retention and thins older versions continuously
Custom limit: an explicit count (1 to 50,000 major versions), with an optional expiration in days
View document libraries
Expand a workspace in the Version Storage report to preview its document libraries. Each library appears as a row under its workspace, with its own version storage, version limit, and file count. Libraries in a subsite appear with the subsite name first, for example Subsite / Documents.
If a workspace has more libraries than the preview shows, click Show all at the bottom of the list to open the Libraries tab of the workspace details page. That tab lists every document library in the workspace.
For document libraries, Files counts files only, not folders. Version Storage is the total size of the items, including versions and metadata, minus the size of the documents themselves.
Set a version limit
A version limit controls how many versions Microsoft 365 retains going forward. It applies only to versions created after you set it. Existing version history stays until you trim it.
You can set a limit on a single workspace, a single document library, across multiple workspaces or document libraries at once, or at the tenant level.
To set a version limit on one or more workspaces or document libraries:
Open the Version Storage report.
Select the workspaces or document libraries you want to update.
Click Set version limit in the toolbar, or click the Version Limit chip in a row to open the modal directly.
Choose a setting:
Automatic (recommended): Microsoft thins older versions passively over time.
Custom limit: specify a number of major versions (1 to 50,000) to keep, and optionally a version expiration in days. For document libraries, you can also select Keep drafts for and enter the number of major versions that keep their drafts.
Default (workspaces and OneDrives only): resets the workspace to inherit the tenant-level setting.
Deactivated (document libraries only): no versions are kept for future edits to the library. Existing versions stay until you trim them.
To apply the limit to the document libraries already in the workspace, select Also apply to all [number] existing libraries. This option excludes libraries with versioning deactivated.
Click Set version limit. To also trim your current version history, click Set limit and trim versions instead, then choose how to trim.
To set the tenant-level version limit:
Go to the Tenant info page.
In the Storage section, click the current version limit setting.
Choose Automatic or set a Custom limit, then click Apply.
Note: Trimming is not available at the tenant level. To remove existing version history, use the Trim versions action on individual workspaces, document libraries, or OneDrives.
Trim existing versions
Trimming removes version history that already exists on your files. Setting a version limit alone does not touch existing versions. Microsoft only applies a new limit to versions created afterwards, so dormant files stay non-compliant until they are next edited or you trim them manually.
You can trim by count (how many recent versions to keep) or by age (all versions older than a specified number of days).
Warning: Trimmed versions are permanently deleted and cannot be restored. They do not go to the Recycle Bin. This is a Microsoft constraint that applies to all version trimming, including through native SharePoint tooling.
To trim versions on one or more workspaces, document libraries, or OneDrives:
Open the Version Storage report.
Select the workspaces, document libraries, or OneDrives you want to trim.
Click Trim versions in the toolbar.
Choose how to trim:
By count: specify how many recent major versions to keep. Protect deletes everything beyond that number. For document libraries, you can also select Keep drafts for so that only the most recent major versions keep their drafts.
By age: specify a number of days. Protect deletes all versions older than that threshold.
Review the details, then click Trim to confirm.
When complete, the Activity log records the number of versions removed and the storage reclaimed from the operation. Entries for document libraries show the site and the library, for example Test Site / Shared Documents.
Trims on workspaces and document libraries count toward the same remediation impact metric. See Remediation impact in ShareGate Protect.
Automate version management with policies
Use the Set version limit and Trim version history policy actions to apply version management on a recurring basis. Version policies target workspaces and OneDrives, not individual document libraries.
Each policy runs a single action. To set a limit and trim existing versions, create two policies. For setup details, see Policies in ShareGate Protect.
Version storage insights
ShareGate Protect surfaces two Reduce costs insights to help you spot where version history is consuming the most storage:
Workspaces with excessive version storage: flags workspaces where version storage is at or above 65% of total site storage and exceeds 10 GB.
OneDrives with heavy version storage: flags OneDrives where version storage is at or above 65% of total site storage and exceeds 4 GB.