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Looking at what is in your archive

The Blob Viewer: browsing an archive that already exists

The BLOB VIEWER opens your storage container as a file explorer - browse it, download a copy of anything, or upload a file. It cannot delete anything, and it changes nothing in SharePoint.

Reads only. Nothing in SharePoint is changed.
On this page What it tells you How it runs How it works What it will not do Read next

What it tells you

  • The Blob Viewer is a file explorer over your own container. Folders are the archive's own layout - site, then library, then item - and each level is named after what it is wherever this computer knows: a payload shows the document it holds, with its blob name beside it. Where nothing knows the name, the row shows the blob name and nothing invented.
  • Downloading from the Blob Viewer hands you a copy and leaves the placeholder in SharePoint exactly as it is. It is a download, not a restore, so the space stays reclaimed.
  • UPLOADING PUTS A FILE IN YOUR STORAGE - IT DOES NOT ARCHIVE A DOCUMENT. Nothing in SharePoint will point at what you upload, and no click will serve it. To archive a document, use On Demand Archive.
  • There is no New folder, because blob storage has no folders: a folder here is just the path of the blobs inside it, so one appears as soon as something is uploaded under it and disappears when the last blob goes.

How it runs

  1. Browse it. ShareMaster Archive → Blob Viewer, then choose the organisation. A file explorer opens on your container; drill in, or search the whole thing by document name or blob name.
  2. Take a copy. Select a file and download it - or drag it out of the window. Opening the file is the only real proof that what is archived is what you think it is.

How it works

The viewer opens your archive container with your own Microsoft sign-in, the same identity an archive run uploads with; no account key or shared link is used. It first checks that the container exists and can be read, and when it cannot, says which of three things is wrong: no storage recorded for that organisation, no container, or no data permission.

Blob storage has no real folders, so each level is listed by name prefix: sites, then libraries, then items, each named by its Microsoft id. Archived files carry no document names in storage on purpose, so the viewer labels them from the archive history on this computer: the document a payload held, the library a list id belongs to, and a site from a library inside it. Where this computer has no record, the raw id or blob name is shown. Search filters the whole container on this computer, by document name or blob name.

Downloading reads the blob and saves a copy; the placeholder in SharePoint is not changed. Uploading writes a new blob into the container and nothing else: no placeholder points at it, and Archive Storage Usage counts it under other files. There is no delete and no editor, because a payload may be the only copy of a document.

What it will not do

  • It cannot delete anything. The viewer browses, downloads and uploads; nothing in it removes a payload, because a payload may be the only copy of that document left.
  • It says nothing about whether a payload is still pointed at. Browsing shows what is in the container, not which archived documents SharePoint still links to.

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