Search the Preservation Hold Library
Find files kept under retention
When a file under a retention policy or hold is edited or deleted, SharePoint keeps a copy in the site's Preservation Hold Library. SharePoint's search does not look in that library, so its own search box finds nothing even when the word is right there in a column. This reads every file in the library and searches all of their details as you type.
What it tells you
- Whether a deleted or changed file was kept, and where it used to live.
- When SharePoint preserved it and who last modified it.
- What the copy is called inside the library, which is usually not its original name.
How it runs
- Sign in and choose a site. One site, or paste its address.
- Wait for the read. A large library takes a while. Stop keeps what has been read.
- Search. Every word must appear somewhere: name, original location, dates, people or any other column. Quotes keep a phrase together.
- Take what you need. Tick the files you want, or use Select all matches. Download the ticked files or every match into a folder - each lands in folders matching where it came from, with an Excel report beside them - or get an Excel report of all matches without downloading.
How it works
It first checks whether the site has a Preservation Hold Library at all. A site where SharePoint answers that there is none is reported that way; a site that could not be checked is reported as an error, never as having no library. Then every row of the library is read once, with a running count on screen.
Searching, sorting and ticking work on that copy in memory and send nothing to SharePoint, which is why it finds text SharePoint's own search does not: SharePoint leaves this library out of its index. A search looks in every column shown, the copy's name and path inside the library, and every other column SharePoint returned. If the read is stopped or fails part-way, the page says so and searches only what was read.
Downloads run one file at a time. Each file is saved under its original name, in folders that recreate where it came from; when the same document was preserved more than once, later copies get the preservation date added to the name. Nothing already on disk is overwritten: each file is written under a temporary name and renamed only once complete, and it is given the copy's Modified date where possible. A file too large to download from here is listed as skipped, a failed file is listed with its reason and the run carries on, and an Excel report is written beside the files.
Nothing in the library is changed, by a search or by a download.
What you need
- Access to the site's Preservation Hold Library. Site collection administrators always have it.
What it will not do
- Nothing in the library is changed. SharePoint manages it and refuses edits while a hold applies.
- Files up to 250 MB download from here. Copy the library address to open a larger one in SharePoint.
- A site that has never had a preserved file has no Preservation Hold Library, and the page says so.
- The search covers every match; the screen shows the first 2,000 and Export to Excel writes all of them.
Microsoft's own documentation
- Learn about retention for SharePoint and OneDrive: When SharePoint creates the Preservation Hold Library, what is copied into it, and when copies are removed.