When it comes to managing SharePoint Online storage costs, most IT directors end up facing the same binary choice: archive old data or live with the bill.
The problem is that “archive” means different things to different people. And in the Microsoft 365 context, the distinction between archiving and stubbing is not semantic. It’s the difference between a solution your users will tolerate and one that generates a helpdesk ticket every time someone tries to access a file that’s been moved out of their sight.
This confusion leads to a lot of organizations either doing nothing, paying for storage they don’t need, or making changes their teams resent. Getting this right matters.
What Archiving Actually Means
In the SharePoint context, archiving means moving data out of the active SharePoint environment to a separate location – typically a dedicated archive repository, cold storage tier, or a different part of the Microsoft 365 infrastructure.
Once archived, the original file is gone from SharePoint. Users who look for it in the original location won’t find it. To retrieve it, they need to know it was archived, know where to look, and in many cases submit a request through IT.
For compliance-heavy industries, this model has its place. Legal holds, regulatory retention requirements, and records management workflows are often built around formal archiving. When a document needs to be sealed and retained for seven years, it shouldn’t be sitting in an active SharePoint document library where anyone can accidentally edit or delete it.
But for general SharePoint Online storage cost management, archiving is a blunt instrument. It creates access friction. It generates user complaints. And it requires ongoing IT involvement every time someone needs something that was moved.
What Stubbing Actually Means
Stubbing is a more surgical approach. Instead of removing the file from SharePoint entirely, stubbing moves the file content to a lower-cost storage tier while leaving a pointer — the stub — in the original location.
To the user, nothing has changed. The file appears in the same folder, in the same SharePoint library, with the same name and metadata. When they click it, the system retrieves the content from wherever it was moved and delivers it transparently. The user experiences normal file access. They don’t get a message saying the file was archived. They don’t need to raise a ticket.
From a storage billing perspective, SharePoint is no longer holding the full file content. The stub is tiny. The content lives in the backup or archival tier at a significantly lower cost per gigabyte. The storage reduction is real. The operational impact on end users is essentially zero.
Archiving solves a compliance problem. Stubbing solves a cost problem. They are not the same tool.
A Side-by-Side Look
| Factor | Archiving | Stubbing |
|---|---|---|
| File visible to users | No – moved to separate location | Yes – stub remains in place |
| User access process | Submit request or navigate to archive | Click the file as normal |
| IT helpdesk impact | High – users report missing files | Minimal – transparent to users |
| Storage cost reduction | High | High |
| Best use case | Compliance, legal hold, records | General cost management |
| Disruption during rollout | High – users notice immediately | Low – users notice nothing |
| Retrieve time | Varies – manual process often required | Fast – automatic and transparent |
When to Use Each
Archiving is the right tool when the data has a defined lifecycle with compliance or legal implications. If your organization is required to retain financial records for seven years and they need to be sealed from further modification, formal SharePoint Online archiving with proper access controls is the right approach.
Stubbing is the right tool when the data still theoretically needs to be accessible, but it hasn’t been touched in months or years and you’re paying premium storage rates to keep it in SharePoint. That covers the vast majority of cold data in most organizations.
The two are not mutually exclusive. You can run a stubbing policy for general cold data management while maintaining a separate archiving workflow for records subject to compliance requirements. Many mature Microsoft 365 environments end up using both.
The Question to Ask Your Backup Vendor
Most backup vendors offer some form of archiving capability. Very few offer stubbing for SharePoint Online specifically, because it requires deep integration with the SharePoint architecture to handle stub creation and transparent retrieval.
If you’re evaluating Microsoft 365 backup platforms, the question to ask is not “do you support archiving?” The answer will almost always be yes. The more useful question is: “Can you apply a stubbing policy to SharePoint Online and maintain transparent user access to stubbed files?”
That’s the question that separates platforms that manage storage costs from platforms that just protect data.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q1: What is the difference between SharePoint archiving and stubbing?
SharePoint archiving moves data out of the active environment to a separate location, making it invisible to users in its original location. SharePoint stubbing moves the file content to cheaper storage but leaves a pointer in place so users continue to see and access the file normally.
Q2: Does SharePoint archiving affect user productivity?
Yes, in most cases. Archived files are no longer visible in their original SharePoint location, which means users must know the data was archived and navigate to a separate repository to find it. This often generates IT helpdesk requests and reduces productivity.
Q3: Is stubbing available for SharePoint Online?
SharePoint Online stubbing is available through a limited number of platforms. ExchangeSavvy, powered by Cohesity Alta SaaS Protection, supports stubbing policy application directly to SharePoint Online with transparent user access preserved.
Q4: Can an organization use both archiving and stubbing?
Yes. Archiving and stubbing serve different purposes and can be used together. Stubbing is effective for general cold data cost management, while archiving is appropriate for compliance-driven, lifecycle-managed records that need to be sealed and retained separately. Learn more about ExchangeSavvy’s backup solutions.
Q5: Does stubbing affect SharePoint search or metadata?
Stubs retain the original metadata, so SharePoint search continues to surface stubbed files in results. When a user accesses a stubbed file, the content is retrieved from the secondary storage tier and delivered without disruption.
