DOCUMENT ID / Durable links in SPO not working at all!

Copper Contributor

Hi all,

I have much experience with the Document ID service however am new to the Durable Links feature. I have activated the Document ID service on SPO to use the new feature. I have found all pdf's are not supported by Durable links with SPO.

 

However, when I move an office document all links are breaking...aghh!

All links I have copied either from the 'Copy Link' from the ribbon or the Document Properties -> DOCID Link prior to moving the file to another library in the same site.

 

As disappointed as I am that PDF durable links do not work on SPO, does this now extend to Office docs as well! I am finding that moving any document will generate a new DOC-ID and Durable Link and the old one's prior to moving will be broken links.

Thanks in advance for your reply - Greg. 

 

7 Replies
I logged this job with Microsoft and I was told Durable links that are moved do not work in SPO. They are formulated for Sharing Links so that only specific users can use the links. Anyway the question on DOCIDs not working they are still working on and I will get back as soon as I know..
This isn’t true. Durable links do work with office files only and pretty sure they have to stay on the same library thou so only movie around in folders. It was touted in OneDrive originally and the files all store in same library.

Actually it is partially true if what you say about a single library is true - thanks. 

 

From the definition 'Durable links are a great feature which allows the improvement of SEO and search based indexing to remain functional for documents even after they are renamed or moved to another document library' - from what I was informed these links work in conjuction with DOC ID service so that documents moved from one library to another can still be indexed, identified and found by SP Search. 

 

You say it works within folders of the same library (which I will test and get back to you on) but the question remains - what's the purpose of that? It should be as it was originally intended and that is to index and find a document with a unique docid wherever it may have been moved to within a SP Site collection.

 

Thanks for your reply and I will endeavour to test these functional ambiguities and report back.

I have since tested and you are correct about the DOCID remaining when an office document is moved to a new folder within the same library. However, a new DOCID is created when you move it to another library in the same or different site within the same site collection. This to me renders the function unusable and almost useless. Quite disappointed as I used to use and recommend this in the older versions of the product.

So the question remains - how do we ensure link integrity for a document that is moved in SP?

Microsoft have got back to me and the answer is on both SP On-Prem and Online:

- Documents with Durable links will also break if moved outside of the Library.

- Documents only retain there Document ID when moved within the same library. If you move outside of this - the link breaks and a brand new DocID is generated.

Note: I was advised that the only way you can move a document and retain its DocID is by using the Content and Structure interface - I have tried this and you cannot move or copy a file into itself or any of its branches.  

 

Finally, from a technical perspective it was explained to me that the Devs scripted the Move function by copying the Copy function with one extra step - it obviously deletes the original source document.

 

This has been escalated to MSFT to fix as the whole purpose of Document IDs is to find it wherever it may roams using Enterprise Search and I am certainly not entertaining the thought of telling users they can't use the 'Move' button on the ribbon (as it is really a copy) and need to navigate to the Content & Structure tool in the backend to Move the file so it will retain its original DocID even if it did work. 

 

So what am I going to do about link integrity (e.g. - a user Shares or Copies a link via email, in another document, inside of SP, outside of SP to a document that gets moved?) - run a scan with a third party product to find Broken Links and automatically fix or report them to their owners to fix up.

 

Hope this helps clarify for those out there as it has been a rabbit hole...onto the next one!

So I was mostly right then :). Thanks for letting us know the full detail!
Microsoft implementing move action with copy + delete is very strange as they should have known the difference between a move and copy. This is surprising stuff from MS