I have an issue where each time I update metadata, it automatically updates the version of the document however the document hasn't been changed itself. How do I stop this?
This is the default behaviour of SharePoint when changing metadata through the user interface. This results in a new version and increased storage consumption. The best way is to of course to avoid it in the first place.
It is possible to modify the metadata programmatically. We use REST API in our tools (specifically the validateupdatelistitem, see https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/microsoft-sharepoint-blog/update-file-metadata-with-rest-api-...) when uploading new documents and simultaneously setting metadata without adding additional versions. This will not help though with existing documents. Another approach is to periodically purge versions. There are also tools that provide this functionality.
