New Updates to OneDrive and SharePoint Team Site Versioning
Published Jun 14 2018 09:51 AM 75.8K Views
Microsoft

UPDATED 8/14/2018:

As we previously announced in MC138148, we will be providing an option to opt out of the versioning setting update. You can start opting out today using SharePoint Online Management Shell cmdlet provided later in this post.

 

Warning: by opting out, your Office 365 Tenant will not be able to take advantage of the upcoming version setting update, document library's versioning can be turned off by end users and documents lose the protection of version recovery.

 

If you would like to opt out of the versioning setting update for your Office 365 Tenant using SharePoint Online Management Shell cmdlet provided later in this post, you must do so by the end of September 2018. Otherwise, we will roll out the versioning setting update to your tenant in October 2018.

 

Command: Get-SPOTenant/Set-SPOTenant

 

Parameter: EnableMinimumVersionRequirement

 

Value: True - default value, opt-in to the versioning change.

False - opt out.

These commands require version 16.0.7918.1200 of the SharePoint Online Management Shell or greater. To download the latest version of the SharePoint Online Management Shell, visit https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=35588. After you run the cmdlet to change the value, please check if the value is set correctly by running Get-SPOTenant cmdlet.

 

UPDATE 7/18/2018:

Since this announcement, we have received feedback from our customers on this functionality and the timing. First off, thank you for your valuable feedback. We hear you and are making changes to accommodate different customer needs. With that said, we will be providing an option to opt out of the site versioning requirements. We will update this blog as well as the Message Center Blog when that becomes available so please stay tuned.

 

On May 15th we announced on the Office 365 Roadmap (ID 30544) that we’re updating the versioning settings on all OneDrive for Business and SharePoint Online team site document libraries, including both group-connected team sites and team sites not connected to an Office 365 Group. We'll be gradually rolling this out to Targeted Release customers in early June, and the rollout will be completed worldwide by the end of July.

 

Protecting customer data is the most critical thing we do as a platform. In the lifetime of SharePoint Online, the most common form of data loss has been a result of un-recoverable changes; something that can be prevented by the versioning functionality. This feature is critical to undoing unwanted changes, and other recovery scenarios. 

 

A few years ago, we enabled versioning by default and since then we have heard customers’ feedback that versioning can still be turned off by end users without fully understanding the implications. Some customers have even resorted to building custom tools to scan and keep versioning on for all the document libraries within their tenants.

 

To further protect end-user data, we will require versioning with a minimum count of one hundred major versions for document libraries in SharePoint team sites and OneDrive for Business.

 

What happens to my existing library settings on document libraries in SharePoint team sites and OneDrive?

Existing libraries that have versioning enabled but are set to retain fewer than one hundred major versions will be updated to retain the new minimum. Libraries already set to retain one hundred or more major versions will not be affected, including those with the default setting of five hundred.

 

Can I disable versioning?

With these changes, the document library settings page will no longer support the ability to disable versioning or configure it to retain fewer than one hundred versions. Developer APIs, however, will still allow for setting any custom retention count and disabling versioning, however for the reasons stated above this is highly discouraged. 

 

This update may increase the number of possible versions saved for any document. With that said, earlier this year we announced plans to increase the SharePoint Online per user license storage allocation to allowing greater collaboration and storage capacity for organizations using Office 365 and SharePoint Online.

 

As stated earlier, we are rolling out this change to First Release users in June and the rest of tenants worldwide in July.

 

We have published this update to Office 365 roadmap and we will also update the Enable and configure versioning for a list or library support document when we start rolling it out.

 

As always, please feel free to provide feedback here or in our OneDrive UserVoice forums.

 

-The OneDrive Engineering Team 

 

 

 

 

 

37 Comments
Brass Contributor

Great explanation and a nice compromise with the API setting. Hopefully that should ease some concerns. 

 

Thanks for that Stephen Rose.

 

Bronze Contributor

Awesome! There should be a way to disable versioning, but it should be a big hurdle, through and administrative PowerShell or custom API, not a checkbox in a web page.

Iron Contributor

Good news. Especially important given that *guest* Office 365 Group members have the same Edit permissions as internal members.

 

That Contribute permissions aren't available (practically/best practice for now) -- _especially_ Guests -- is another 'fight' for another day =)

@Stephen Rose By API access, can we assume PowerShell commandlets are in the offing? There are use cases where versioning might make little sense, or runs counter to business objectives. Read-only artifacts such as PDFs for example. Shouldn't customers have the option to control this in the end? Thanks!

 

 

Deleted
Not applicable

@Stephen Rose What about Minor Versions? are they still supported or only Major?

Iron Contributor

It is clear from this document (https://support.office.com/en-us/article/Enable-and-configure-versioning-for-a-library-3819d2a7-1986...) how to use the web interface to set the number of major versions in a SharePoint Library.  How do you use a web interface to set the number of major versions in OneDrive for Business.

 

Thank you.

Microsoft

We have updated the post with the opt-out information

Iron Contributor

To clarify, if we opt-out:

 

1.  Will we be able to specify any number of major versions to be maintained, like 10, 20 or 30.  If not any number, what is the minimum number of versions will we be able to maintain.  Or, are you saying that if we opt-out, we won't have any versioning available?

 

2.  What does it mean:  "documents lose the protection of version recovery?"  Will individual versions be able to be restored as they are now, or do we lose the ability to restore any prior versions?

 

3.  If we don't opt-out before the September 30 deadline, can we opt-out later and go back to limited versioning, or are we then locked into the new versioning protocol?

 

Thanks again.

Copper Contributor

We have detected for a few hours a read-only information on Sharepoint Online Website that has the Library versioning enabled with the default setting of five hundred.
There are no availability impact on the announcement and why we had impact in a Sharepoint Online website that should not be affected by this change?

 

Deleted
Not applicable

ran  Set-SPOTenant -enableminimumversionrequirement $False and even tried $Fales (which I think is a typo) but checking on get-spotenant still returns me to true. Anyone?  ok figured it. although it is $False instead of $Fales :)

 

Iron Contributor

What was it you changed to get it to work?  Thank you.

Deleted
Not applicable

just inserted the caps :)

this is the correct one

Set-SPOTenant -EnableMinimumVersionRequirement $False 

 

then you can check with

Get-SPOTenant

 

Iron Contributor

Thank you kindly for posting back so promptly

Copper Contributor

We turn our versioning off as it's not needed at the moment.

 

Can someone just confirm, if we accept the update, will our versioning remain off and will we still have control in Site Settings (as administrators) to switch it on if required later?

Iron Contributor

My understanding is that if you accept the update, versioning will get turned on, and all changed documents will be stored in up to 100 versions.  Also, if you accept the update, I'm not sure you'll be able to turn off versioning thereafter.

Copper Contributor

Ok thanks for that.

 

I'm now having trouble running the command.  I have connected to my online site and when I run "Get -SPOTenant" I can see a list of settings, but "EnableMinimumVersionRequirement" isn't in the list

 

Then I run "Set-SPOTenant -EnableMinimumVersionRequirement $False" and receive the following error:

 

Set-SPOTenant : A parameter cannot be found that matches parameter name 'EnableMinimumVersionRequirement'.
At line:1 char:15
+ Set-SPOTenant -EnableMinimumVersionRequirement $False
+ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+ CategoryInfo : InvalidArgument: (:) [Set-SPOTenant], ParameterBindingException
+ FullyQualifiedErrorId : NamedParameterNotFound,Microsoft.Online.SharePoint.PowerShell.SetTenant

 

Can anyone tell me what I'm doing wrong please?

Deleted
Not applicable

@Diane Download the new version for the SharePoint powershell 

Copper Contributor

Ah that was it, thanks!

Although I had installed the latest version, it hadn't overwritten the old version, so was obviously using that.

 

Now I've got another issue!  It accepted the line "Set-SPOTenant -EnableMinimumVersionRequirement $False" but now when I run "Get-SPOTenant" I see the following entry:

 

EnableMinimumVersionRequirement               : True

 

What is going on?  I have tried setting it to false at least 5 times, but it's still stuck on True!

 

UPDATE:

Ok I thought you might like to know that I tried typing "Set-SPOTenant -EnableMinimumVersionRequirement $True"

Which initially set it to false!

Now some 2 hours later, I have just checked again and it has reset itself to True again!

It doesn't matter if I type $True or $False at the end of the script, it isn't changing to False now at all!!

 

MICROSOFT PLEASE HELP - WE NEED THIS DISABLED!!

 

 

Copper Contributor

Having the same problem as Diane... 

Iron Contributor

Will opting out as per the SET SPOTenant instructions above have the effect of opting out of both SharePoint and OneDrive for business?

Iron Contributor

Dear Diane Burns,

 

Mine showed False immediately after Set-SPOTenant.  About 1/2 hour later it turned back to True.  About 1/2 hour after that, it turned back to False, and has stayed False for about four hours.

 

Did yours turn back to False, and is this now resolved for you?  

 

I'm asking so I know if I have to keep checking every few hours.

 

Thank you.

Copper Contributor

Hi Steven,

 

Thanks for the update.  

I've just run Get-SPOTenant to check and mine is now showing as False!!

At this rate, how can we be assured that it won't change back again at a later time?  Do I need to check this on a regular basis?

 

Iron Contributor

Hi Diane,

 

    Thanks for your reply.  I checked mine again this morning, and it's still False.  At this point, I think we're going to have to hope for the best unless @Stephen Rose or someone else from Microsoft will review all of the unanswered questions in this post and reply to them.

 

    My open questions are:

 

1.  Will opting-out affect both OneDrive for Business and SharePoint?  If not, how to we opt-out for ODFB?

2.  If we opt-out prior to September 30, can we opt-in later?

3.  If we opt out, will we still be able to set the number of major versions as we can currently?

4.  What does it mean: "documents lose the protection of version recovery?" Will individual versions be able to be restored as they are now, or do we lose the ability to restore any prior versions?

5.  Several users have reported the "EnableMinimumVersionRequirement" powershell variable seemingly changing itself from False, to True, and back again.  If we see it "False" as of today, can we count on it staying that way?

 

Feel free to add any open questions you might have to the above list, and re-post for MSFT's convenience.  It will be nice if we can see all of the questions and answers in one place.  Thanks again.

Iron Contributor

Greetings all - okay as noted above it is my understanding that existing libraries will have versioning enabled and be updated to the new minimum.  Today a user had an issue with versioning as the library was only set to 5 major versions.  Now when reading the above again it sounds like this will be rolled out to tenants in October 2018 so it appears this hasn't been updated for our tenant yet and I should be patient - although I did go ahead and manually change the versioning settings to a few of the more critical libraries today.  

 

Not sure if required but still went ahead and set "EnableMinimumVersionRequirement" to True....

 

Will remind users about other options for working with AutoSave - especially for those documents they want to use as templates, etc.

 

Wanted to post here to see if anyone else has come across this yet....I was originally going to post and see if there was a PowerShell command to change the versioning for all libraries but again will wait for this to be rolled out to our tenant....hopefully soon!

 

Cheers!

 

Copper Contributor

 This hasn't been applied to our tenant yet, was it ever rolled out?

Copper Contributor

This is causing significant issues as items that do not need versioning are taking up large amounts of space and therefore eating into storage limits unnecessarily. The option to decide for ourselves which items should have versioning is essential. Removing that option is poor practice as it reduces control by the owners of the files. That in itself is dubious legally, I am sure.

 

Almost one year ago Microsoft responded above by saying: "We hear you and are making changes to accommodate different customer needs. With that said, we will be providing an option to opt out of the site versioning requirements. We will update this blog as well as the Message Center Blog when that becomes available so please stay tuned."

 

Nothing has happened in almost 12 months.

 

The situation is still unacceptable.

 

Microsoft - we pay you for this service. Our payments have REDUCED the control we have over our own files. And it has REDUCED the amount of material we can store due to excessive compulsory versioning.

 

When are you going to do what you said you will do a year ago?

Steel Contributor

@grahamjones-uk versions do not consume storage limits AFAIK. It is a bonus part of the service.

 

You can turn off versioning though. I would't recommend it though unless you are using a third party app to back up your tenant. Otherwise mistakes users make will not be fixable if you cannot simply revert to a previous version. Versioning has been awesome for us. A user messes up a file, they fix it themselves by getting the last known good version.

Copper Contributor

Sorry @Ed Hansberry that is not correct. I have been having discussions with Microsoft support about this. The files on my OneDrive are around 350Gb but I no longer have any space as a total of 1024Gb has been used up. The remaining 700Gb are the versions, which I cannot stop happening...!

 

You cannot turn versioning off. In the thread above, Microsoft point out this is now disabled. That help page you linked to is one of the help pages Microsoft said it would update a year ago to reflect the new rules. Except it hasn't updated it. So, they are publicly saying two things - 1. You can switch off versioning and 2. Versioning cannot be switched off. 

Iron Contributor

When I'm dealing with Word and Excel documents, if I don't want extensive number of versions to be created in light of frequent auto-saves, I turn auto save off, by using the slide button in the upper left hand corner of the title bar.  I may turn it back on later in the process, so I have some versions I can fall back to if necessary.

 

When I'm dealing with other document types, after I "finalize" a document, if I no longer care about prior versions, I copy the document to a second file name, and delete the original file.  In doing this, I find that the historical versions don't get copied to the new copy of the file and the old versions are deleted with the original copy of the file.

 

This should be balanced against the benefits of keeping prior versions.  If you ever get malware or ransomware that encrypts your files, it may be possible to recover the last unencrypted version of the file by having the version history available.

 

Finally, it is possible to selectively delete prior versions by using the web interface, looking at the version history, and selecting the versions you want to delete.  This can free up some space that's unnecessarily being hogged up by unneeded versions, especially with very large files.

Copper Contributor

You are having to work @Steven Seligman in a way that is cumbersome and open to error. What if you forget to switch the slider on/off? Either you end up with versions you need to delete manually, or you don't have versions when you need them. Plus that only works for Office applications. What about other formats? As you say, you have to delete old versions manually. That's OK for small numbers, but I have thousands of files with loads of versions created. So, your solution just isn't practical.

 

For instance, there are hundreds of audio files all with dozens of versions. Audio files don't need versioning. With the old way that Versioning worked, it was possible to switch it off for an audio files directory. Now, my OneDrive is littered with data-sapping automatic compulsory versions which are not needed. 

 

You can find complaints about this in several threads and several forums. Microsoft have said they are going to change it, but that was a year ago.

 

Why they changed it in the first place is stupid and makes no sense as it reduces control for owners.

 

Given that we are paying for this service from Microsoft, and given that they admitted they needed to change things back to the way they were, why has it taken them a year to make zero progress?

Copper Contributor

@grahamjones-uk  Have you or anybody else tried this PowerShell commandlet to turn off version on a docLib that got forced to use versioning?

 

https://www.sharepointdiary.com/2018/08/sharepoint-online-powershell-to-disable-versioning.html 

Copper Contributor

I have two 5GB files stored on OneDrive. Like @grahamjones-uk, each has been versioned 100x, resulting in going over my 1TB limit and my syncing of new filed being cut off! This silly mandatory versioning feature has made it impossible to continue to use OneDrive. This seems to be a deceptive business practice - I am unable to store my allotted 1TB of files, since versioning forced me to the limit. Has anyone found a solution to this? I am not a programmer or IT person so would appreciate an end-user friendly answer please. Thanks in advance.

Copper Contributor

Hi everyone,

I noticed that in an onedrive business account it is not possible to deactivate the archiving of previous versions of a file if this is modified or overwritten. This puts in serious difficulty the available space (in my case 1tb) that after some time without adding so many files I have seen it shrink almost to the limit. Investigating the situation a little more I realized that many files (compared to the versions I have locally) took up almost double. The problem is that a copy of the file is created in the previous version. I contacted support and they confirmed that it is NOT possible to disable versioning. The only workaround is to delete the entire folder and upload the files again, freeing up a lot of unnecessarily (in my case) occupied space. Until the next time of course ..

Any tip is welcome.

Ale

Copper Contributor

Really need a fix for this. Versions that I do not want are eating up my storage which I cant not take above 1TB. Over 50% wasted space. 

Copper Contributor

This is Microsoft forcing everyone into having to buy additional storage. This needs to be reversed!!!

Copper Contributor

Do we have any feedback from Microsoft on this matter ?

Copper Contributor

On this same thread - I have just added some meta data to some videos stored in sharepoint, each meta data change has created a new version, increasing the data consumed by up to 4 or 5 times.  As a consequence this has used all of the data quota.

I can not turn off versioning for the library that the items are in.

We do not need the versions that have been created.

How can I resolve this issue ?

 

Iron Contributor

If you open the SharePoint folder from the Web View, you can click on the ... (three horizontal dots) next to the file in question.  A menu will pop-up and one of the options should be "Version History".  If you click on Version History, all of the versions will pop-up.  There are three vertical dots next to each version along with the modified date.  If you click on the three vertical dots, another menu will pop-up with a delete option.  You can use this capability to delete all of the versions you no longer need, presumably the older ones from before you added the meta-data.

 

The deleted files will go to the recycle bin which still consumes storage quota.  If you are satisfied with the deletions you can permanently delete them by first deleting them from the SharePoint recycle bin, and then delete them from the Second-stage recycle bin.  The link to the Second-stage recycle bin is at the very bottom of the display of the recycle bin.  You have to scroll all the way down to see it.

 

Once you delete the undesired versions from the Second-stage recycle bin, their storage quota should be released. 

 

Warning:  Please be aware that I think deletion from the Second-stage recycle bin is permanent, and there will be no way to recover those versions.

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‎Aug 22 2018 08:14 AM
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