Can I do a bulk edit for content approval?

[GraemeNZ]

Hi. We need to start using content approval for an existing SharePoint library. I have set up a button in a column to trigger a flow, which starts and waits for approval, automatically sent to the Approver who is entered into another column in the library. Works great.

My issue is that the ~500 items in the library all now show as draft, when in reality they were all approved previously by our old process.

Can I bulk edit the approval status? All leads so far suggest this isn't possible. The best I can see is that I have a note in the procedure that we only implemented content approval at this date, so it only applies to changes made after that date, but that seems a poor solution.

Cheers, GraemeNZ

[#2]

I have just answered part of my question. According to this blog below, bulk approval is now a feature. https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/microsoft-sharepoint-blog/optimizing-business-solutions-with-...

So now my question becomes, "Can I do a bulk approval request that doesn't spam my approvers with notifications, so that then they can do a bulk approval as per the above link?"

Cheers, GraemeNZ

[#3 · Accepted solution]

Ah, I've done it again. Sorry, my brain must be tired. Here's my solution in case other users search for this.

In SharePoint, I select all items, the click ellipsis and check them all out. Once checked out, I check all the docs back in as a Major version. This sets content approver to Pending. Now I can click the ellipsis, click More, and Approve/Reject. This allows me to approve all items myself (as admin) without troubling my approvers.