Forum Discussion
Content Search & Unindexed Items
- Apr 25, 2017
I FINALLY got an answer from MS Support. The purge function will never delete an unindexed item. They also have removed the ability to exlude unindexed items from search due to legal reasons. You can exclude unindexed on export, but not on search anymore like you used to be able to.
The following resouces detail the changes.
- Unindexed items : https://support.office.com/en-us/article/Unindexed-items-in-Content-Search-in-Office-365-d1691de4-ca0d-446f-a0d0-373a4fc8487b
- Creating a content search : https://support.office.com/en-us/article/Run-a-Content-Search-in-the-Office-365-Security-Compliance-Center-61852fd9-fe8a-4880-a339-cb19ed3bff4a?ui=en-US&rs=en-US&ad=US#create
- Search & Purge : https://support.office.com/en-us/article/Search-for-and-delete-email-messages-in-your-Office-365-organization-Admin-Help-3526fd06-b45f-445b-aed4-5ebd37b3762a#moreinfo
Encrytped or password-protected is a common scenario, unsupported file types is another one. There's a detailed article on the subject here: https://support.office.com/en-us/article/Unindexed-items-in-Content-Search-in-Office-365-d1691de4-ca0d-446f-a0d0-373a4fc8487b?ui=en-US&rs=en-US&ad=US
VasilMichev I guess the problem I am running into is that I have lost the ability to exclude unindexed items as described in the article you mentioned. Now I am afraid to run the powershell commands to remove the items searched for from the users mailboxes because I do not want to remove those unindexed items that I cannot exclude from the search.
- VasilMichevApr 19, 2017MVP
When you run an Action against Content Search, you have the option to specify whether unindexed items are included in the scope. If you are doing this via PowerShell, the "-Scope IndexedItemsOnly" parameter is what you need. More info here: https://technet.microsoft.com/EN-US/library/a3a2897c-07a8-41d6-99cd-f2440613fbce(EXCHG.160).aspx
Plus, you can always run the Export action first, so you have a backup copy if something goes wrong.
- Robert WoodsApr 19, 2017Iron Contributor
Unfortunately the "Scope" is only available on Export commands. I am trying to run a purge command and it wont accept the -Scope IndexedItemsOnly as part of the command.
Ill redo the search using Powershell and choose not to include the unindexed items. I dont understand why this was removed from the GUI. I remember it being there before.
- Robert WoodsApr 19, 2017Iron Contributor
Wow... I just tried to run this via powershell and the -IncludeUnindexedItems switch is not avialable there either.
PS C:\Scripts> New-ComplianceSearch -Name "deltaphishing2" -ExchangeLocation All -IncludeUnindexedItemsEnabled False -WhatIf
A parameter cannot be found that matches parameter name 'IncludeUnindexedItemsEnabled'.
+ CategoryInfo : InvalidArgument: (:) [New-ComplianceSearch], ParameterBindingException
+ FullyQualifiedErrorId : NamedParameterNotFound,New-ComplianceSearch
+ PSComputerName : ps.compliance.protection.outlook.comCan someone else see if they still have the ability?