Acquisitions (Details) $ / shares in Units, € in Thousands, $ in Thousands				3 Months Ended		5 Months Ended		9 Months Ended
	May 04, 2016 USD ($)	May 02, 2016 USD ($) shares	Mar. 31, 2016 USD ($)	Sep. 30, 2016 USD ($) city	Sep. 30, 2015 USD ($)	Dec. 31, 2016 USD ($) region	Dec. 31, 2016 EUR (€) region	Sep. 30, 2016 USD ($) city shares	Sep. 30, 2015 USD ($)	Apr. 29, 2016 $ / shares
Business Acquisition [Line Items]
Cash consideration								$ 353,651
Consideration transferred								2,192,183
Disposal Group, Including Discontinued Operation, Revenue				$ 6,562				10,571
Net proceeds from divestments (see Note 10)								$ 53,950	$ 0
Initial United States Divestments
Business Acquisition [Line Items]
Number of cities subjected to the Scheme of Arrangement divestment | city				13				13
Discontinued Operations, Disposed of by Sale | Initial United States Divestments
Business Acquisition [Line Items]
Disposal Group, Including Discontinued Operation, Revenue				$ 0				$ 0
Disposal, consideration	$ 80,000
Net proceeds from divestments (see Note 10)	55,000
Disposal Group, Including Discontinued Operation, Contingent Receivable	25,000
Contingent receivable, net of adjustments	21,400
Contingent receivable, fair value adjustment	2,200
Contingent receivable, present value adjustment	$ 1,400
Disposal Group, Held-for-sale, Not Discontinued Operations | Australia Divestment Business And Iron Mountain Canadian Divestments [Member]
Business Acquisition [Line Items]
Disposal Group, Including Discontinued Operation, Revenue				15,803	$ 23,317			42,954	50,759
Disposal Group, Including Discontinued Operation, Operating Income (Loss)				$ 1,986	$ 3,595			2,741	$ 5,146
Docufile Holdings Proprietary Limited [Member]
Business Acquisition [Line Items]
Consideration transferred			$ 15,000
Archyvu Sistemos [Member]
Business Acquisition [Line Items]
Consideration transferred			$ 5,100
Other Fiscal 2016 Year Acquisitions (excluding Recall)
Business Acquisition [Line Items]
Cash consideration								21,817
Consideration transferred								25,323
Recall
Business Acquisition [Line Items]
Cash consideration		$ 331,800						331,834
Price per outstanding share | $ / shares										$ 36.53
Consideration transferred		$ 2,166,900						$ 2,166,860
Recall | Common Stock
Business Acquisition [Line Items]
Acquisition, shares of common stock issued | shares		50,233,412						50,233,412
Scenario, Forecast | Santa Fe
Business Acquisition [Line Items]
Consideration transferred						$ 30,300	€ 27,000
Scenario, Forecast | Santa Fe | Subsequent Event
Business Acquisition [Line Items]
Business Acquisition, Number Of Regions | region						10	10