What is Microsoft 365 Archive?

Microsoft 365 Archive provides a cost-effective solution for storing inactive SharePoint sites. Here are the key points:

Benefits of Microsoft 365 Archive

Cost Savings:

• Reduce storage costs with lower list prices on storage consumption.
• By moving inactive data into the archive, you free up primary storage for more critical content.

Speed:

• Ultra-fast archiving of sites of any size ensures efficient data management.

Lossless Metadata:

• When you reactivate archived content, all metadata and permissions are preserved.

Decluttering:

• Explicitly separate active and inactive content for better lifecycle management.

Features

• Archive complete SharePoint sites, including Lists, Libraries, and files.
• Quickly archive SharePoint sites from the Admin Center (in minutes).
• Metadata and permissions will be retained.
• 7-day grace period to restore an archived site without additional costs.
• Admin Search index remains intact.
• Upcoming: File-level archiving (January 2026).

Limitations

• Archived content is only accessible for admins through Admin-Level and Purview-based search.
• Only site-level archiving is available for now; file-level archiving will be introduced later.
• End-user search doesn’t show archived content (feature is on the roadmap).
• Columns for Archived Date and Archive By will be added later.
• You can’t archive a site that is part of Microsoft 365 Backup.
• Archiving sites still synced by clients will cause errors on the client side.
• Archiving a Teams site will leave the Teams Channel and Exchange Mailbox active.
• New: Restriction against re-archiving content within four months after reactivation.

Pricing model

Microsoft 365 Archive charges for storage. Storage consumption is charged at a per-GB monthly rate, offering significant cost savings.

Pricing Details:

• $0.05 per GB per month for archived data.
• Free up to your remaining SharePoint storage capacity. For example, if you have 2 TB of SharePoint Online storage and 200 GB available, you can archive up to 200 GB without additional costs.

Additionally, accessing (retrieving) archived data incurs separate costs of $0.60 per GB.

Admin setup

Setting up Microsoft 365 Archive is straightforward:

Prerequisites:

• An active Azure subscription with the necessary permissions.

Licensing:

• Link your Azure subscription and enable pay-as-you-go billing for Microsoft Syntex.

Enable Microsoft 365 Archive:

1. Go to the Microsoft 365 Admin Center.
2. Enable the Archive feature via the SharePoint Admin Center settings.
3. Follow the official documentation for detailed steps.

Archiving

After enabling the Archive feature in Microsoft Syntex, a new page, Archived Sites, appears in the SharePoint Admin Center. Admins can archive, manage, and reactivate sites from this page.

How to Archive a SharePoint site:

1. Navigate to the Active Sites page.
2. Select one or more SharePoint sites to archive.
3. Click Archive in the toolbar.
4. Confirm the action, and the site will appear in Archived Sites.

Reactivating an archived site

Archived SharePoint sites are inaccessible to users but remain searchable via Purview. To restore user access, admins must reactivate the site.

Reactivation Process:

1. Open the Archived Sites page.
2. Select the site.
3. Click Reactivate and review the estimated cost.
4. Confirm the reactivation.

Reactivation costs:

• Free within the first 7 days.
• $0.60 per GB after 7 days.

Sites can be in the following states:

• Recently Archived: Free reactivation (7 days).
• Archived: Reactivation incurs a fee.
• Reactivating: The site is being restored.

Using PowerShell to archive SharePoint sites

Admins can also automate the archiving process using the SharePoint Online PowerShell module.

Examples:

To list archived SharePoint sites:

# Connect to SharePoint Online  
Connect-SPOService -Url https://yourtenant-admin.sharepoint.com/

View all archived sites:

Get-SPOSite -Filter {ArchiveStatus -ne "NotArchived"}

Archive a specific site:

Set-SPOSiteArchiveState https://yourtenant.sharepoint.com/sites/OldProject -ArchiveState Archived

Reactivate a site:

Set-SPOSiteArchiveState https://yourtenant.sharepoint.com/sites/OldProject -ArchiveState Active

End user experience

When end users attempt to access an archived site, they will see a message that the site is archived. Admins can enhance this experience by providing a redirect button to a support form for reactivation requests.

Example:

To set up a redirect URL:

Set-SPOTenant -ArchiveRedirectUrl "https://helpdesk.yourorg.com/reactivate"

Compliance

Microsoft Purview seamlessly integrates with archived content, ensuring it meets security, compliance, and retention standards.

Conclusion

Microsoft 365 Archive offers a robust solution for managing inactive SharePoint sites. By reducing storage costs and decluttering active content, it ensures efficient data lifecycle management.

If your organization has numerous outdated SharePoint sites, archiving them can save costs while maintaining compliance. However, ensure you calculate potential reactivation expenses, especially for large sites.

Thank you for reading!
/Simon