At Summiteers, we love smart solutions. So when we switched to SharePoint to collaborate in the cloud, we thought: perfect. Everything in one place, working together on documents, no more hassle with folder structures, syncing issues or USB sticks. Right? Until we suddenly started receiving daily notifications from Microsoft: “Your storage is (well) over the limit.” With no clear explanation. Just a push to “buy more storage.” Wait—how? Where is all that storage being used? We dug into it. Not easy, but eventually we discovered: the cause wasn’t entirely on our side. The real issue lies in how SharePoint handles version history. And that has major consequences.

Versioning: useful, but completely thoughtless

Did you know SharePoint stores 500 versions of a single file by default?
Yes, really. Change one word? New version.
Do that a few times a day, per file, over months—and your storage usage skyrockets. Without anyone noticing.

You only see the latest version, not the hundreds underneath.
It might seem handy to always be able to revert to an older version, but in reality:

• Users have no insight into how much storage all those versions consume
• Cleaning up becomes a technical process requiring scripts or external help
• Buying extra storage becomes the only logical (paid) solution

Cleaning up yourself? Good luck

We tried solving it ourselves. But without a technical background, you get nowhere. Endless back-and-forth with Microsoft’s (very friendly) helpdesk. But no result. Eventually, we had to bring in an external party who wrote a custom script to clean things up. Because SharePoint doesn’t offer a simple way to manage this properly.

A business model, not a solution

We’re happy to tidy up. But give us the right tools. Right now, it feels like Microsoft lets you fill up your storage—only to then charge you for more. Not a bug, but a business model.

Why this should concern everyone

You might think: clever business move by Microsoft. But all those unnecessary versions of documents are stored in data centres that consume energy 24/7. And for what? A text change from last year that no one needs anymore?

It’s wasteful. Of space, time, money—and especially energy.

What we’ve done (and what Microsoft should do)

We’ve now:

• Drastically reduced the default versioning settings
  (In practice, to a maximum of 100 versions per file—because Microsoft doesn’t allow fewer…)
• Written internal guides for document management
• Set up a plan for periodic clean-ups (with scripts, unfortunately)

But that’s just treating the symptoms.

What Microsoft should do:

• Set fewer versions by default (e.g. 25 or 50 instead of 500)
• Make storage usage transparent (with clear dashboards)
• Offer users a simple way to bulk clean up
• Communicate clearly about what happens when you exceed your limit

Until then, we’ll keep the broom handy.
But let’s be honest: it’s time Microsoft handled this smarter.
For users, for businesses—and especially for the climate.

We call on Microsoft to take action.

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