Best Practices and Limitations in Teams, SharePoint, and OneDrive

This guide outlines key recommendations, restrictions, and limitations for using Microsoft Teams, SharePoint, and OneDrive effectively when storing and collaborating on files.

Understanding Teams and Channels

Each Microsoft Team creates a dedicated SharePoint site where files are stored.

  • Teams are typically created for departments, large projects, or groups of people working together.
  • Standard channels organize conversations and files within a Team.
  • Files for all standard channels are stored in a single SharePoint document library for that Team.

If a project has different members, large file collections, or long-term work, consider creating a new Team instead of simply adding another channel.

Microsoft Teams

  • Create one team per department for easier management.
  • Each team should have at least two owners to ensure continued administration if one owner leaves.
  • Channel limits per team:
    • 1,000 standard channels
    • 30 private channels
    • 50 shared channels

When to Create a New Team Instead of a Channel

  • The group of people working with the files is different from the rest of the department.
  • The files are part of a large or long-term project.
  • The collection of files will grow very large.
  • The work requires different permissions, owners, or lifecycle management.

Folder and File Management

To keep files organized and avoid system issues:

  • Use short, descriptive names for files and folders.
  • Avoid special characters and very long names.
  • Limit folder nesting to approximately three levels when possible to keep file paths shorter and easier to navigate.
  • Do not set custom permissions on individual files or folders in standard channels.
    • Use Teams membership, Private channels, or Shared channels to manage access instead.

File Volume Limits

  • Files for all standard channels in a Team are stored in a single SharePoint document library.
  • Document libraries perform best when they contain fewer than 100,000 files total.
  • The maximum supported limit is 30 million files, but performance may degrade well before this.
  • If a department has very large collections of files, consider organizing them across multiple Teams instead of simply creating many channels.

Large Folder Limits

  • SharePoint has a 5,000-item list view threshold that limits how many items can be retrieved in a single view.
  • This does not limit the total number of files in a library, but very large folders may cause performance issues.
  • To avoid problems, try to keep folders under approximately 5,000 files when possible.

File Size Limit

  • The maximum file size that can be uploaded to Teams, SharePoint, or OneDrive is 250 GB.

File Path Limit

  • SharePoint and OneDrive file paths (including folder names and file names) must be 400 characters or fewer.

Example: sites/marketing/documents/Shared Documents/Promotion/Some File.xlsx

More information: Microsoft’s official documentation

File Naming Restrictions

  • SharePoint does not allow certain characters in file or folder names.

" * : < > ? / \ |

  • Files and folders cannot end with a period or space.

File Version History

  • Teams and SharePoint automatically maintain version history for files.
  • Previous versions can be viewed or restored if a mistake is made.
  • This eliminates the need to create multiple copies of the same file (for example: File_v2 or File_FINAL).

Sync Recommendations

  • Only sync folders that you actively need on your computer.
  • Syncing very large libraries can slow computers and cause synchronization errors.
  • Microsoft recommends keeping synced content under approximately 100,000 files per device for best performance.
  • The technical maximum supported limit is 300,000 synced items, but syncing very large collections may reduce performance.

External Sharing

  • Sharing with users outside Bowdoin College is allowed.
  • Anonymous sharing is disabled — external users must sign in.
  • Shared links expire after 180 days but can be renewed if needed.
  • External users can be added to Shared channels when collaboration is required.

Deleted Item Retention

  • Deleted items are retained for 93 days total.
    • Recycle Bin: Items remain here initially.
    • Second-Stage Recycle Bin: Items move here if removed from the first recycle bin.
  • After 93 days, items are permanently deleted and cannot be recovered.

Sensitivity Labels & Data Classification

Team and Group Lifecycle

  • Inactive Teams or Microsoft 365 Groups may be automatically deleted after 180 days of inactivity unless renewed.
  • Owners receive notifications 30, 15, and 1 day before deletion and can renew the Team if it is still needed.

OneDrive Access After Termination

  • When an employee leaves the College, their manager is granted access to the employee’s OneDrive files to ensure continuity of work.
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