Forcing the addition of required metadata in file upload to Teams

[shawn_fielding]

Hi all,

So, when we upload files to SharePoint, we have mandatory metadata fields that we must fill in, for multiple reasons.  Right now uploading to Teams just... uploads.  Is there a way to force the user to input metadata fields when uploading to Teams?  I know we cannot see additional metadata fields in Teams, but that is sort of okay with us, as long as the files GET the metadata fields we need.  Thoughts?

[#2]

This is by design, Teams does not force metadata and the same happens if you upload the files through the SPO UI

[#3]

@Juan Carlos González Martín Huh, this is an strange choice to not allow it at all, since metadata often controls records retention and is the method in which a taxonomy is utilized.  At the very least, wouldn't this cause a violation of records management practices in most organizations?  I can see the option of doing it or not, but it almost seems dangerous not to have the option.  Hope it comes along in future dev.

[#4 · Accepted solution]

Nope not possible and won’t be either when new files tab comes out. You can have views to encourage required metadata but that’s about it in the modern UI.

You can force a classic view library and use the website tab in teams to point to it which will force metadata but that’s only work around I can think of.

You could also have a flow nag people about missing metadata by sending a daily list of files with missing metadata and linking them to the files missing metadata view filtered to files their created etc. as well.

[#5]

Could you use Flow during the upload of a file to require people to add metadata?

[#6]

Hi @shawn_fielding - what about using folders w/your metadata and use the column autotagging feature in library settings? Not as flexible, but could force a few columns worth of tags as docs are uploaded to certain folders.

[#7]

Flow wouldn't be a great solution. I mean, you could send e-mail saying that "The document you uploaded needs metadata" and a link to the page to edit that metadata if you wanted. But this could get ugly if they upload a bunch of documents.

[#8]

@Kelly_Edinger, This might actually work for records retention (though it might be hard to keep up with folders created).  But for document types and topic taxonomy facets, I'm not sure it would help much.  But not a terrible idea to explore.

[#9]

@Chris Webb Maybe something like this (which honestly I don't know is possible)?

1.  Someone adds file.

2.  Flow opens webapp form at user that has required fields.

3.  User fills in.

4.  Flow adds metadata to file.

5.  Everyone is happy.  

Doesn't really address mass file addition though.

[#10]

Flow doesn’t really have that built into it. However you might be able to do something with the outlook cards. Forget what they call them today. But I don’t know how they would work with calling SharePoint rest etc. interesting idea thou. If you could get that to work. Wonder if those can be made to have a way to go down the list through an array of data. Hmm. Now you got me curious cause this could be huge if it could work.