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Record when files are restored

The hidden library column and the restore grace period

Restore tracking lets later archive runs leave recently restored files alone. It is optional because it adds a hidden column to your SharePoint libraries.

Reads only. Nothing in SharePoint is changed.
On this page What it tells you How it works Read next

What it tells you

  • When you archive with tracking enabled, ShareMaster creates the hidden date/time column SMArchiveRestoredUtc in each library it processes, if it is missing. Report only does not add it.
  • The column is hidden, not required, and excluded from the default view and the new, edit and display forms. Users do not need to fill it in.
  • When ShareMaster restores a file and the column exists, it records the restore time in UTC using SystemUpdate. Recording this date does not create a new version or change Modified or Editor. The restore puts the original dates and authorship back first.
  • With tracking enabled, later runs compare the recorded restore time with Leave alone if restored in the last (days). A file inside that period is skipped. Zero days disables that grace period.
  • On Demand Archive can set the grace aside for one run: tick Archive restored files too, however recently they were restored. Every file not already archived then qualifies however recently it was restored, restore dates are still recorded, and the next run without the tick leaves restored files alone again. A schedule never offers this - unattended, it would take back a file somebody had just restored.
  • Turning tracking off disables the grace rule for that run. It does not remove an existing column or its recorded dates. A later ShareMaster restore can still record its time if the column exists.
  • If the column cannot be created or the restore time cannot be recorded, ShareMaster logs the problem. Archiving or restoring can still complete, but files without a recorded restore time do not receive this protection.

How it works

The column is added by an archive run, not by setup, and only when tracking is on and the run is archiving. It is added once per library, the first time the run reaches that library and before any file in it is archived, so every file archived there has somewhere to record its restore. It is created hidden, with its internal and display names identical, kept out of every view and form, and its description says ShareMaster wrote it and that it should not be edited.

The restore time is written by the one restore sequence that both a placeholder click and Restore Archived Files use, so the two record it the same way. It is written in its own step after the file is already back, so failing to record it never undoes a restore. Whether a library has the column is read from the library's settings once per library, so a library without it costs no failed writes. Because the value lives on the item in SharePoint, every computer and every run reads the same answer.

On the next run, the restore time is read in the same pass that reads each file's other facts, so the rule costs no extra request. A file whose recorded restore falls inside the grace period is left alone with that reason, and a file with no recorded time is treated as never restored.

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