What are the options available for the archival of the data of Document Library in SharePoint Online?

Question

We have a couple of document libraries in which there is a large amount of data.

i.e., one of the document libraries has 1,99,936 items in it.

We are looking for the best archival option so that the current site doesn't get slow due to a large amount of data and also we want to avoid the issues with Search as the threshold limit is crossed.

Below are some of the options we found for the Archival of SharePoint Online Document Library,

1. Manually move the older files to other locations / delete them.
2. Set retention policy.
3. Create a flow on a particular document library to move the files to other locations over a specific time period.

Is there any other option available for the archival?

Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

Sites don't get "slow" due to data set size. If you do find any performance issues, you can open a case with Microsoft as performance is their responsibility.

Answer 2

You can refer to the following two methods. These methods are more of a “workaround” and not a true archival technique.

1.SECURITY TRIMMING

The idea behind this approach is that you would be setting up unique permissions for certain folders you need to “archive”, thus making them invisible to the end-users. So, in reality, folders will still be there, just hidden.

Note:

• Folders/Files cannot be hidden from the Site Owners/Site Collection Administrators.Only Site Members and Site Visitors.

2.CUSTOM METADATA/FILTERING

The idea behind this method is that you will need to create a custom metadata column on a library called “Status” (or whatever you want to call it) with a few drop-down choices (i.e., Active/Inactive). Once tagged, this will allow you to filter out (hide) the Inactive files.

Note:

• Can only tag files, not folders
• Requires consistency in tagging if you would like to utilize across multiple sites/libraries