Patrick Domingues

Learn how to set the version history limit for your SharePoint site using PowerShell. Efficiently manage document revisions and optimize storage.

Introduction

SharePoint offers a valuable versioning feature that allows you to track and manage document revisions. By enabling versioning, you can keep a record of changes made to documents, making it easier to review and revert to previous versions if needed. In this article, we will explore how to set the version history limit for an entire SharePoint site using PowerShell. By following the steps provided, you can efficiently manage versioning across your SharePoint environment.

Understanding SharePoint Version History Limit

Before we dive into the details of setting the version history limit, let’s briefly discuss what it entails. Version history limit refers to the maximum number of versions retained for each document in SharePoint. By setting a limit, you control the number of versions saved, preventing the version history from becoming excessively large and impacting performance.

Setting the version history limit is crucial for optimizing storage usage and ensuring efficient document management. It allows you to strike a balance between preserving document history and maintaining a manageable versioning system.

Before we proceed, please ensure that you have the following prerequisites in place:

Uninstall the Legacy SharePoint PowerShell Module

1. Open a PowerShell command prompt with administrative privileges. To do this, right-click on the Start button and select “Windows PowerShell (Admin)” or “Windows PowerShell” if you’re using an older version of Windows.

2. To uninstall the module, use the following command

Uninstall-Module -Name Microsoft.SharePoint.PowerShell
Uninstall-Module -Name Microsoft.OnlineSharePoint.PowerShell

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3. Confirm the uninstallation by typing “Y” or “A” when prompted.

4. That’s it! The Legacy SharePoint PowerShell module should now be uninstalled from your system.

Installing the PowerShell 7.0 MSI package

To install PowerShell on Windows, use the following links to download the install package from GitHub.

• PowerShell-7.3.4-win-x64.msi
• PowerShell-7.3.4-win-x86.msi

Install Latest SharePoint Online PNP PowerShell

Install the New PnP PowerShell Module by running the command in PowerShell 7.0

Install-Module PnP.PowerShell 

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Once you have the prerequisites ready, follow the steps below.

PowerShell Script to Set Version History Limit for SharePoint Site

To set the version history limit for an entire SharePoint site, you can utilize PowerShell scripting. Follow the steps below to create the script:

Step 1: Launch PowerShell

Open PowerShell with administrative privileges to ensure you have the necessary permissions to execute the script.

Step 2: Install SharePoint Online Management Shell

Use the following command on PowerShell 7 to install SharePoint Online Management Shell.

# Install SharePoint Online Management Shell module if not already installed
Install-Module -Name Microsoft.Online.SharePoint.PowerShell -Force

Step 3: Set Version History Limit

Next, create a PowerShell script file with the following content:

# Import SharePoint Online module
Import-Module Microsoft.Online.SharePoint.PowerShell -DisableNameChecking

# Connect to SharePoint Online
Connect-SPOService -Url "https://your-domain-admin.sharepoint.com"

# Get all site collections in the SharePoint Online tenant
$siteCollections = Get-SPOSite

# Iterate through each site collection and set the version history limit
foreach ($site in $siteCollections) {
    Write-Host "Setting version history limit for site:" $site.Url

    # Get the root web of the site collection
    $rootWeb = Get-SPOWeb -Identity $site.Url

    # Set the version history limit for all lists and libraries in the root web
    $rootWeb.Lists | ForEach-Object {
        $_.EnableVersioning = $true
        $_.MajorVersionLimit = 100  # Replace 100 with your desired version limit
        $_.Update()
    }
    $rootWeb.Dispose()
}

Make sure to replace “https://your-domain-admin.sharepoint.com” with the URL of your SharePoint admin site. Also, adjust the version limit (currently set to 10) to your desired value.

Step 4: Execute the Script

Save the script file with a “.ps1” extension (e.g., SetVersionHistoryLimit.ps1) and execute it in PowerShell by running the following command:

.\SetVersionHistoryLimit.ps1

The script will iterate through all site collections in your SharePoint Online tenant, set the version history limit to the specified value (10 in the example script), and apply it to all lists and libraries within each site.

Conclusion

Managing the version history limit in SharePoint is crucial for effective document management and storage optimization. By setting the version history limit using the provided PowerShell script, you can efficiently control the number of versions retained across your entire SharePoint site. This ensures a streamlined versioning system while preserving the necessary document revisions. Take advantage of PowerShell’s automation capabilities to simplify the process and maintain an organized SharePoint environment.

I hope this article was helpful!  You can find more here: SharePoint Articles.