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 …

Advertisement

What happens when files are moved in SharePoint?

Every SharePoint document library, including the Teams 'Files' tab, includes the ability to move or copy files somewhere else in the tenant. For some unknown reason, the arrow in the SharePoint library points to the right but in Teams it points to the left, and in Teams the 'to' is missing. What actually happens when …

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 …

Sensitivity labels in Microsoft 365

Sensitivity labels are one element in a range of tools that can be deployed in Microsoft 365 to protect information, as shown in the diagram below. Image source: Microsoft page 'What is Azure Information Protection' If you are new to information protection, it is important to understand that Azure Information Protection (AIP) is not the …

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' - …

Where are the records in Microsoft 365?

One of the consequences of the (relatively sudden) requirement to work from home from early 2020, was that Microsoft 365 - primarily Outlook and Teams (with 'Files' or SharePoint and OneDrive for Business behind the scenes) - became the de facto system to create and capture 'unstructured' records. Unlike centralised electronic document and records management …

What happens when you delete or edit sent Teams chats and posts

Teams chats and channel posts are a bit of a problem to manage as records because it is not easy to capture them - either individually or as a thread. The most common solution is to screenshot them but this is hardly ideal. End-users may be able to delete or edit sent chats and posts. …

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 …

Changing patterns of office work

A recent (September 2021) Verge post titled 'File Not Found' by Monica Chin (@mcsquared96) noted how pre-defined storage locations for digital content have become mostly redundant for the younger generation that grew up using Google to find content - 'the concept of file folders and directories, essential to previous generations’ understanding of computers, is gibberish …

Sync vs Add Shortcut to OneDrive from SharePoint

UPDATE 30 June 2022: Based on feedback and some live troubleshooting with MacOS users, I have changed the text to read MacOS instead of iOS. Also, one MacOS user noted that if there are problems with the sync on those devices, it is sometimes easier just to delete the app and re-install it. Microsoft 365 …