Archiving

Superseded and retired documents leave the active view but stay part of the permanent record — retrievable for every future audit.

When a new major version of a policy is approved and published, the previous version doesn't vanish — and it shouldn't. An auditor may ask about the version that was in force two years ago. A litigation hold may reach back five years. A management review may compare how a procedure evolved across four revisions. The archive is where that history lives: accessible to compliance and quality teams, invisible to end-users who might otherwise act on an obsolete version, preserved for as long as the retention policy demands.

Stage 4 · Govern Business: Included Enterprise: Included Premium: Included Diamond: Included

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At a glance

What you get

Four behaviors make archiving a genuine compliance capability rather than a "move to another folder" operation. Each one maps to a specific requirement in frameworks that require obsolete-document control.

Superseded versions preserved

When a new major publishes, the previous one moves to the archive with its full audit log and metadata intact.

Controlled access to archive

Compliance, quality, and document owners can retrieve; everyday end-users cannot see archived content.

Retrievable for audit

Search by protocol code, filter by date, find the exact version in force on a given day — in a few clicks.

Metadata + history intact

Archived items keep their full audit log, metadata state, and version history — not a stripped-down snapshot.

How it works

From superseded to preserved record

Archiving happens automatically when a new major version is published, or explicitly when an owner decides to retire a document. Either path captures the event in the audit log, moves the document out of the public area, and preserves it for future retrieval.

New major version publishes

When approval completes and a new major version is issued, the previous version is automatically moved to the archive.

Archive event written to audit log

The transition is captured as an audit event — who triggered it (via publication), what version, on what date.

Access restricted to authorized roles

Archive library is visible to compliance, quality, and document owners; end-users don't see it.

Retrieval serves audit and investigation

During an audit or litigation hold, authorized users retrieve the exact historical version — full audit log attached.

Before / after

What changes when this is on

The archival failures that hurt most are loss of history, accidental use of obsolete versions by end-users, and the scramble to produce a document "as it existed on a specific date" during an audit. All of them become structurally impossible.

Without it

With intranet.ai

✗ Shared drives periodically purged; critical historical versions disappear without trace

✓ Archive is a structured library; documents don't get purged without deliberate retention policy

✗ End-user accidentally opens a superseded SOP and acts on obsolete guidance

✓ End-users can't see archived content; only the current approved version is in the public area

✗ "Produce the policy as it existed on April 3, 2022" → week-long archaeology project

✓ Protocol code + date filter → exact historical version retrieved in seconds, audit log attached

✗ Compliance has to maintain a separate "obsolete documents" spreadsheet for ISO clause 8.5.3

✓ The archive is the clause 8.5.3 evidence; no parallel tracking required

Availability

Plan availability

Controlled archiving is a core governance feature on every DMS plan. Retention policy (how long documents stay in the archive) is customer-configurable across all tiers; the archive mechanism itself is identical across plans.

business

enterprise

premium

diamond

✓ Included

Archiving is included on every DMS plan. Retention policy is customer-configurable on all tiers; Microsoft Purview retention coexists at the tenant level for records-management scenarios.

Keep exploring

Related features

Archiving complements versioning (which preserves minor and major states) and feeds the audit log (which records every archival event). These three features together preserve the complete document history.

Stage 4 · Govern

Versioning

Minor versions while drafting, major versions at publication — every state preserved, every version recoverable.

Stage 4 · Govern

Audit log

Every action, every approval, every version — captured against a named user, accessible in 30 seconds.

Stage 2 · Approve

Sequential approval

Named approvers, in defined order, with role-based routing — every step logged, every version tied to the approvals that produced it.

Deep dive

Read the full narrative

For the buyer who wants the full detail — compliance context, edge cases, adjacent workflows.

Superseded versions leave the active view but stay part of the permanent record.

When a new major version of a policy is approved and published, the previous version doesn’t vanish — and it shouldn’t. An auditor may ask about the version that was in force two years ago. A litigation hold may reach back five years. A management review may compare how a procedure evolved across four revisions. The archive is where that history lives.

Archive, not delete

When a new version is published, the superseded version moves automatically to the archive. It stops appearing in the public area — end-users no longer see it and can’t accidentally act on it — but it remains stored and retrievable. The archive is a dedicated SharePoint library with controlled access: compliance, quality, and document owners can reach it; everyday end-users cannot.

This matches ISO 9001 clause 8.5.3 (“control of obsolete documents”): obsolete versions must be controlled to prevent their unintended use, but retained when knowledge or legal preservation obligations require it.

What gets archived

Superseded major versions of every document, along with the minor-version history that preceded each one.
Retired documents — documents the owner has decided are no longer applicable. The retirement reason is captured in the audit log.
Historical metadata — the metadata state at the moment of archival, not just the document file.

Every archived item retains its full audit log. The retrieval path — document, version, log — works for archived content exactly as it works for active content.

Retrieval for audits and investigations

An auditor asks about the version of a specific SOP in force on a specific date two years ago. A compliance officer:

Opens the archive library.
Searches by protocol code or document name.
Filters by date range or version number.
Opens the exact version asked about, with its audit log attached.

The whole retrieval is a matter of a few clicks, not an archaeology project. For regulated industries where “produce the document as it existed on this date” is a routine request, this is the operational capability that makes the request answerable.

Retention — customer-controlled

How long the archive keeps content is a customer decision, not a product imposition. Typical patterns:

Indefinite retention for policies, SOPs, and regulated records — the default for most compliance-focused customers.
Retention-period-based for documents governed by specific retention schedules (GDPR data-minimization, industry-specific record retention rules).
Legal-hold overrides to preserve specific documents beyond their normal retention when litigation or investigation requires it.

Microsoft Purview retention policies at the tenant level operate alongside the archive. The archive is the product’s mechanism for controlling obsolete versions; Purview is the tenant’s mechanism for broader records-management policy. The two layers coexist.

What the end-user sees

End-users see only the current approved version in the public area. They can’t browse the archive; they can’t accidentally open a superseded policy. If they need historical context, they ask the document owner or the quality team, who can retrieve it. This access separation is what makes “archive, not delete” safe in practice — the obsolete content is preserved for the people who need it, not exposed to the people who might misuse it.

What this feature prevents

Loss of history to cleanup pressure. Shared drives accumulate, then get periodically purged; critical versions disappear. The archive is structured, so cleanup doesn’t mean loss.
Accidental use of obsolete versions. Superseded versions aren’t in the public area; end-users simply can’t act on them by mistake.
“We can’t find the 2023 version” during audits. The archive is the answer.

Versioning — every version that enters the archive is preserved with full fidelity.
Audit log — archival events are logged like every other lifecycle event.
Sequential approval — the event that triggers automatic archival of the prior version.

Lifecycle stage: Govern →

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Read the full guide

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