How to optimise SharePoint storage and mitigate security risks by identifying and bulk-removing duplicate files, excessive file versions, and large storage consumers.
Note: Storage Management is an additional module for DeliverPoint. If you don't see these options in your reporting menu, your current environment may not be licensed for this feature. Please contact [email protected] if you wish to trial or purchase this.
Overview of Storage Management
The Storage Management module scans SharePoint environments to locate duplicate files, files with extensive version histories, and objects consuming high storage volumes. It provides reporting interfaces that allow Site Owners and Tenant Administrators to execute bulk deletions of redundant content, filter results by version counts, and configure scheduled reporting to monitor storage consumption over time.
Accessing the Storage Module
The Storage Management reports are accessible directly from the DeliverPoint SPFx interface within SharePoint.
- Open the DeliverPoint interface
- In the top navigation menu, click on Storage Management.
- Select the desired report from the drop-down list.
- Discover Duplicate Files
- Discover Multiple File Versions
- Storage Consumption
Discover Duplicate Files Report
Duplicate files consume unnecessary storage and fragment document security when copies are placed across different folders or sites. The Discover Duplicate Files report identifies these identical files within your selected scope.
To run and action the report:
1. Open the DeliverPoint Tree View and select the scope you wish to report on (for example, a Site Collection, Site, or Document Library).
2. From the top navigation menu, click Storage Management and select Discover Duplicate Files.
3. Click the Generate button to run the report using the default settings.
4. Review the green summary banner at the top of the report, which dynamically calculates the exact amount of storage space you can save by deleting all duplicates versus only the selected files.
5. Review the automatically expanded Found Duplicate Files list, which groups identical files and displays their specific SharePoint locations (Site and List), modified dates, and file sizes.
6. DeliverPoint automatically selects/ticks the redundant copies based on the title column sort order.
7. Click Remove Selected Duplicates to delete only the checked files, or (use with extreme caution) click Remove Found Duplicates to delete all identified duplicates in the report.
Optional Filters and Settings
If you need to narrow down the results before generating the report (for instance, to ignore small text files and only display large media files), you can expand the Filter and Settings sections.
1. Building Custom Filters
Expand the Filter section to build queries. Click the green plus icon to Add new filter condition, or click the dark blue plus icon to Add new filter group to apply nested And/Or logic.
2. Filter Properties
You can filter by properties such as File Size (specifying B, KB, MB, GB, or TB), Potential Saved Space, File Type, or Editor Display Name and many more etc. Select here to learn more about the different operators available in DeliverPoint, and what they do.
3. Show Sensitivity Labels
Expand the Settings section and check this box if you need the report to retrieve and display the sensitivity labels applied to the files within your selected scope.
Discover Multiple File Versions
Files with extensive version histories can significantly contribute to SharePoint storage consumption. The Discover Multiple File Versions report helps identify files with multiple versions and estimate how much storage could potentially be reclaimed by removing those versions.
To run and action the report:
1.Open the DeliverPoint Tree View and select the scope you wish to report on (for example, a Site Collection, Site, or Document Library).
2. From the top navigation menu, click Storage Management and select Discover Multiple File Versions.
3. Click Generate to run the report using the default settings.
4. Review the summary banner displayed at the top of the report. The banner displays the amount of storage that can potentially be reclaimed by removing the versions returned by the report.
5. Review the files returned under Files With Multiple Versions.
The report displays files that contain version history and includes information such as:
- File
- List
- Site
- Modified By
- Modified
- File Size
- Versions
- Versions Size
6. Expand the Versions column for any file to view the individual versions and their sizes.
7. Select one or more files and select Remove Selected Files Versions to remove versions only for the selected file, or (use with extreme caution) select Remove All Found Versions to remove versions for all files returned by the report.
Optional Filters and Settings
If you need to narrow down the results before generating the report, you can expand the Filter and Settings sections.
1. Building Custom Filters
Expand either the Filter (Files) or Filter (Versions) section to build queries.
Click the green plus icon to add a new filter condition, or click the dark blue plus icon to add a new filter group and apply nested And/Or logic.
2. Filter Properties
The Filter (Files) section allows filtering against file-level properties, including properties related to version storage consumption.
The Filter (Versions) section allows filtering against individual version properties.
Select here to learn more about the different operators available in DeliverPoint and what they do.
3. Show Sensitivity Labels
Expand the Settings section and check this box if you need the report to retrieve and display the sensitivity labels applied to files within your selected scope.
Storage Consumption
The Storage Consumption report helps administrators identify how storage is being consumed within the selected scope. The report can be used to analyse storage usage at both the library and file level, helping to identify large libraries and files that may be contributing significantly to SharePoint storage consumption.
To run and action the report:
1. Open the DeliverPoint Tree View and select the scope you wish to report on (for example, a Site Collection, Site, or Document Library
2. From the top navigation menu, select Storage Management and then Storage Consumption.
3. If required, configure any Library or File filters before generating the report.
4. Click Generate to run the report using the default settings.
5. Review the Libraries Storage section.
This section displays the document libraries within the selected scope together with their total occupied storage.
6. Review the Files Storage section.
This section displays files that match the configured filters together with their file size and location.
Optional Filters and Settings
If you need to narrow down the results before generating the report, you can expand the Filter and Settings sections.
1. Building Custom Filters
Expand either the Filter (Libraries) or Filter (Files) section to build queries.
Click the green plus icon to add a new filter condition, or click the dark blue plus icon to add a new filter group and apply nested And/Or logic.
2. Filter Properties
Library Filter Properties
The Filter (Libraries) section allows filtering against library-level storage information.
This can be useful when identifying libraries consuming a specified amount of storage.
File Filter Properties
The Filter (Files) section allows filtering against file-level storage information.
This can be useful when identifying files that exceed a specified size threshold.
Select here to learn more about the different operators available in DeliverPoint and what they do.
3. Retrieve Libraries Storage
Enable this option to retrieve storage information for document libraries within the selected scope.
When enabled, the report displays results within the Libraries Storage section.
4. Retrieve Files Storage
Enable this option to retrieve storage information for files within the selected scope.
When enabled, the report displays results within the Files Storage section.
5. Show Sensitivity Labels
Enable this option if you want the report to retrieve and display sensitivity labels applied to content within the selected scope
6. Include Version Sizes
Enable Include Version Sizes if you want DeliverPoint to include the storage consumed by file versions when calculating file and library sizes.
note: Including version sizes requires an additional request for each file and may increase report generation time.