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How to Manage SharePoint Archive Access, Storage, and Pricing
Question details
Users need to understand the pricing structure, storage capacity rules, and access limitations for Microsoft 365 SharePoint Archive.
- Product
- Microsoft SharePoint
- Device & OS
- not provided
- Scenario
- Managing tenant storage quotas and archiving inactive SharePoint sites to optimize capacity and costs.
- Observed behavior
- Archived SharePoint sites are removed from active storage and become inaccessible to standard users until reactivated, while administrators can still search them via Microsoft Purview.
Ensure you have Microsoft 365 administrative privileges and access to the Microsoft Purview compliance portal to manage and search archived SharePoint sites.
Calculating Microsoft 365 Archive Pricing and Storage
Understand how your tenant's standard storage quota interacts with archived data to avoid unexpected costs.
Microsoft 365 Archive pricing is heavily dependent on your tenant's standard storage quota. Archiving SharePoint sites releases them from active storage capacity, allowing you to optimize your data usage.
Log in to the SharePoint admin center to view your total standard storage quota and currently used active capacity.
Assess your total data. If your combined standard and archived data remains within your original storage quota, no additional costs apply. If the archived data exceeds this limit, you will be charged specifically at the archive-storage rate.
Access the Microsoft 365 Archive pricing calculator provided in Microsoft's official documentation to estimate potential billing based on your specific usage metrics.
Managing Access and Deletion for Archived Sites
Guidelines on how administrators can access archived data and the rules for deleting archived sites without reactivation.
Looking for a Cost-Effective Document Solution?
While Microsoft 365 manages complex enterprise SharePoint storage, WPS Office provides a free, lightweight, and highly compatible alternative for your everyday personal and professional document editing needs.
- 1. Download and install WPS Office: Visit the official WPS Office website to download the free suite for your desktop or mobile operating system.
- 2. Open existing Office files: Directly open your Microsoft Office documents without any format conversion or loss of formatting.
- 3. Save and share documents: Edit your documents and save them locally or easily share them via built-in cloud links.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I need to reactivate a SharePoint site before deleting it?
Generally, you do not need to reactivate archived sites before deletion; they can be deleted directly. However, if a site is currently in the 'Reactivating' state, you must wait for the reactivation process to finish before you can delete it.
Can regular users access archived SharePoint sites?
No, once a site is moved to the archive tier, it becomes inaccessible to regular users. Only tenant administrators can search and view the archived content using the Microsoft Purview portal.
How does archiving a site affect my Microsoft 365 storage quota?
Archiving a site releases its content from your active storage capacity. As long as your combined active and archived data remains under your tenant's total standard storage quota, you will not incur additional archive storage costs.
