SharePoint: Guidelines for Bulk File Version Deletion

Dear @Ben Wall, 

Welcome to the Q&A Community. 

Thank you for sharing your concerns. Based on your description, here are some key recommendations to help manage large-scale version deletion jobs in SharePoint Online: 

Firstly, SharePoint Online applies throttling to protect service performance. Since Microsoft doesn’t publish exact limits, we recommend running deletion jobs in smaller batches (e.g., 100–500 items) rather than all at once. 
Therefore, you can use the Get-SPOSiteFileVersionBatchDeleteJobStatus cmdlet to track the status of your jobs. If you notice frequent failures, it may be a sign of throttling. 

After that you can submit jobs gradually instead of all at once, use scripts to manage job flow and reduce system load and look for throttling-related messages to understand system impact.  Be attention that submitting too many jobs at once can lead to failures, slow site performance, or even temporary service disruptions.  For detailed guidance, please refer to the steps outlined in the link below: 

Tutorial: Queue a trim job - SharePoint in Microsoft 365 | Microsoft Learn 

New-SPOSiteFileVersionBatchDeleteJob (Microsoft.Online.SharePoint.PowerShell) | Microsoft Learn 

You can try this workaround and update us. If the issue still appears please feel free to let us know and we will keep assisting you. Please know that we truly appreciate your patience and understanding as we strive to support you. We are here to help. Thank you very much for your understanding and cooperation.    

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