A healthy SharePoint Online environment requires proactive governance, regular maintenance, and adherence to best practices in areas such as site management, permissions, security, performance, and compliance.
This checklist is compiled from Microsoft guidelines and expert recommendations. It is organized into categories for clarity, with actionable items to perform on a recurring basis (daily/weekly, monthly/quarterly, or as needed). Implement these best practices to minimize risks like site sprawl, data breaches, performance degradation, and storage overuse.
Governance and Planning
Establish foundational policies to ensure consistent usage and alignment with organizational goals.
- Develop and document a governance plan early, covering roles (e.g., site owners, admins), responsibilities, and processes for site creation, sharing, and lifecycle.
- Define site creation settings in the SharePoint admin center: Restrict who can create sites (e.g., limit to licensed users) and enforce site designs/templates for standardization.
- Set up hub sites (limit: 2,000 per organization) to organize related sites without excessive subsites (limit: 2,000 per site).
- Plan for Microsoft 365 Groups/Teams integration: Control group creation and use expiration policies for inactive groups.
- Conduct training: Provide short videos or cheat sheets on metadata, versioning, and sharing to users.
Site Lifecycle Management
Manage sites from creation to deletion to prevent sprawl and optimize resources.
- Review and archive/delete inactive sites quarterly: Use the SharePoint admin center to identify unused sites (e.g., no activity in 90+ days) and move content before deletion.
- Implement site expiration policies: Automate notifications for site owners to renew or archive sites nearing end-of-life.
- Monitor site storage: Enforce quotas (default 25 TB per site, but aim for <5,000 items per view/library for performance); clean up large files or use OneDrive for personal storage.
- Use automated provisioning: Apply Power Automate flows or site scripts for consistent site setup.
Permissions and Security
Prevent unauthorized access and data exposure.
- Use Microsoft 365 Groups or Azure AD security groups for permissions instead of individual users; add them to SharePoint groups for scalability.
- Audit permissions regularly (monthly): Leverage Microsoft Purview or the SharePoint admin center to detect broken inheritance, unique permissions, or external sharing risks.
- Configure sharing settings tenant-wide: Limit external sharing to "Specific people" or "Existing guests"; enable expiration for shared links (e.g., 30 days).
- Enable sensitivity labels and DLP policies: Classify sites/files for automatic protection (e.g., restrict sharing on confidential content).
- Review guest access: Use reports to monitor and revoke unnecessary external user access.
Content Management
Organize and maintain data for usability and compliance.
- Favor metadata over folders: Tag documents with consistent columns (e.g., keywords, dates) for better search/filtering; avoid deep folder hierarchies (>100 items per folder).
- Enable versioning and require check-out: Set major/minor versions (limit: 400,000 per file) and mandate check-out for collaborative editing.
- Clean up content: Quarterly, remove duplicates, obsolete files, or large attachments; use retention policies to auto-delete after a period (e.g., 7 years for compliance).
- Optimize libraries: Keep under 5,000 items per view; use indexed columns for large lists (>5,000 items).
Performance and Monitoring
Track health to identify issues early.
- Monitor usage reports: Weekly, review SharePoint activity reports in the Microsoft 365 admin center for trends in storage, views, and user engagement.
- Check service health: Daily, view the Microsoft 365 Service Health dashboard for incidents affecting SharePoint.
- Run diagnostics: Use admin center tools to troubleshoot sync, search, or permission issues.
- Limit sync clients: Educate users on OneDrive sync limits (e.g., 300,000 files per account) to avoid performance hits.
- Audit logs: Enable and review unified audit logs for changes (e.g., via Microsoft Purview) to detect anomalies.
Compliance and Backup
Ensure regulatory adherence and data protection.
- Apply retention and sensitivity policies: Use Microsoft Purview to enforce hold periods and auto-labeling across SharePoint, Teams, and OneDrive.
- Backup strategy: Rely on built-in versioning and recycle bin (93-day retention); for advanced recovery, use third-party tools or export via APIs.
- Conduct audits: Monthly, verify compliance with internal/external regulations; use eDiscovery for investigations.
- Update and patch: Microsoft handles core updates, but review tenant settings quarterly for new features (e.g., Copilot readiness).
Regular Reviews and Automation
- Schedule reviews: Weekly for critical issues (e.g., storage alerts); monthly for permissions/content; quarterly for full audits.
- Automate where possible: Use PowerShell scripts or admin center alerts for notifications (e.g., nearing storage limits).
- Engage stakeholders: Collaborate with IT, compliance, and end-users for feedback and adjustments.
Adhering to this checklist helps maintain an organized, secure, and efficient environment. For tenant-specific configurations, refer to the SharePoint admin center or Microsoft Learn documentation. If issues arise, use built-in diagnostics or consult Microsoft support.