Observations on ‘Move To’ in SharePoint Online

The following are observations from using the 'Move To' function in a SharePoint Online library to move close to 18,500 files and folders over a weekend, from a 'classic' SharePoint subsite in a SharePoint Online site to a new and 'free standing' site in the same tenant. The moving was completed over a weekend to …

Understanding why SharePoint viewers vanish when documents are moved

Recordkeeping requires the capture and retention of event or process metadata about records; that is, data about who did what and when. This information is usually captured in audit logs or trails. In legacy EDRM systems, event metadata was captured with all other metadata about the record in the system's database; the actual digital object …

Audit trails for records in SharePoint Online

As evidence of business activities, records should be authoritative. According to ISO 15489:2016, the characteristics that define authoritative records are authenticity, reliability, integrity and usability. These characteristics may be met by either: Securing or locking a record to prevent unauthorised changes ('declaring a record'). Recording the details of any events - the 'event history' - …

Avoid using folders to aggregate records in SharePoint

Folders provide a simple way to group content on network file shares. But, while they may look the same in SharePoint (or in a synced library in Windows File Explorer), and are the default way to group content in Teams-linked SharePoint sites, they are not always the best way to aggregate let alone manage digital …

Sync vs Add Shortcut to OneDrive from SharePoint

Microsoft 365 provides two primary locations for end-users to create and capture document type content - OneDrive for Business ('my files') and SharePoint Online ('our files'). Both of these can be accessed from the Chats (ODfB) and Team channels files (SPO) tabs in MS Teams. Both OneDrive for Business and SharePoint (including via the Files …

How records managers can manage retention labels and policies in Microsoft 365

Microsoft 365 includes the capability, subject to licencing, to apply retention labels and non-label retention policies to content stored in Exchange mailboxes, SharePoint Online sites, Microsoft 365 Groups and OneDrive for Business accounts. Non-label retention policies may also be applied to Teams chats, Teams channel (including private channel) posts, and Yammer messages. For Teams chats …

Combining metadata with folders in SharePoint

As organisations increasingly move content from network file shares to SharePoint, many have found that folders in SharePoint (and via the Files tab in Teams channels) are a bit less friendly. For example, there is no way to 'expand' the folder view, so it is not possible to see the folder hierarchy (unless the library …

Metadata in old film rolls from Japan – a personal story

Metadata is often thought of as either describing objects (e.g., paper or digital records, library books, physical assets, etc), or forming part of a digital object (e.g., system generated metadata or in the case of most digital photographs, EXIF metadata). Before the arrival of computer-based databases (and even after), many companies embedded codes in their …

Metadata persistence when records are moved in SharePoint

SharePoint Online document libraries include the option to move content to a different location. But what happens to the metadata when this content is moved? This post explains what happens to the metadata when different types of content stored in a SharePoint Online document library is moved (not copied) using the 'Move to' option to …

Ten things to consider when managing records in Microsoft 365

Microsoft 365 has become one of the world's most accessed products for office collaboration. Jeff Teper, the 'father of SharePoint' at Microsoft, tweeted on 27 April 2021 that Teams had 145 million daily active users. (As reported in by the team at Office365ITPros.com.) According to the website 'Microsoft Office Statistics and Facts (2021) | By …