Recreate Metadata in Document Central

The metadata recreation updates the metadata of existing documents in Document Central. This may be necessary, for example, if new metadata definitions have been added afterwards.

The processing occurs per document library and subsite in the background.

Before starting, check the following points:

A default mapping is set up for each affected document library. This is included in the default configuration and must be checked for individual setups.
The synchronization of all affected document libraries has been successfully completed.
No other troubleshooting or background processes are running on the affected document libraries, such as a document entry synchronization.

Synchronization errors must be resolved before the metadata recreation. Then successfully complete the synchronization before starting or retrying the recreation.

Set Up Default Mapping for Metadata Recreation

Open the Role Center Document Central – Administrator.
Click on Repository in the menu bar and select Document Libraries.
Select the desired document library and click on Edit.
Enter the desired mapping code in the Default Mapping field.

Prepare for Metadata Recreation

Open the Role Center Document Central – Administrator.
In the Troubleshooting section, open the Metadata Recreation page.
Use Fill List to generate entries for the document libraries and subsites. The list is initially empty.
Click on Edit List to be able to edit the entries.
Check the box to recreate only new metadata. If the checkbox is unchecked, all metadata will be recreated.
If necessary, enter a start date to limit the documents to be processed.

The date filter considers the last modified date. For Azure Blob Storage, the creation date of the document entries is used instead. Documents before the specified start date will not be considered.

Start Metadata Recreation

The recreation can be started via the task queue or manually. Additionally, it can be triggered directly on document pages, for example, via the Document Entry.

Schedule Processing

The recreation can take a lot of time for large libraries. Schedule the processing preferably outside of working hours and start a maximum of two recreations simultaneously to avoid issues with external requests.

A maximum of ten background sessions can be processed simultaneously per tenant. Additional sessions will be queued. This technical limit does not replace the recommendation to perform a maximum of two recreations simultaneously.

Start Metadata Recreation via Task Queue

Ensure that the task queue Document Central Job Queue – Recreate Metadata is correctly configured.

Open the Metadata Recreation page.
Select the desired entries.
Click on Status and then on Set to Ready.

The entries will receive the status Ready and will then be processed by the task queue.

Start Metadata Recreation Manually

Open the Metadata Recreation page.
Select the desired entries.
Click on Start Recreation.

The processing will start for the selected entries.

Check Processing Status of Metadata Recreation

The status of an entry shows the current processing state:

Status	Description
Waiting	The entry is currently not being processed. Use Set to Ready to prepare it for automatic processing.
Ready	The entry is scheduled for processing by the task queue.
In Recreation	The metadata is currently being recreated.
Paused	The processing has been interrupted and can be resumed later.
Error	An error occurred during processing. After resolving the cause, processing can be continued.

An ongoing recreation can be stopped and resumed later.

Reset deletes the previous processing progress of the entry. The next start will begin the recreation from the beginning.

Resolve Errors in Metadata Recreation

If the metadata recreation fails, check the synchronization and the ongoing background processes of the affected document library. Perform the following steps in Business Central in the Role Center Document Central – Administrator.

In SharePoint, processing occurs per document library and subsite. Therefore, always check the combination for which the recreation failed. If a library exists in multiple annual subsites, the synchronization entry for the affected year must be checked.

1. Identify Affected Document Library and Subsite

Open the Metadata Recreation page under Troubleshooting in the Role Center.
Select the entry with the status Error.
Note the associated document library and, for SharePoint, also the subsite. You will need this information to find the appropriate synchronization entry.

2. Check Synchronization Status and Error Cause

Open the Document Synchronization page via Repository in the Role Center.
Select the entry for the same document library and subsite.
Check the status of the entry and proceed according to the following table.

Synchronization Status	What to Do?
Error	Check the session log and resolve the reported cause. Then restart the synchronization as described in the next section.
In Progress	Wait until the synchronization is complete. As long as it is running, no metadata recreation can be performed for the same library and subsite.
Ready or Waiting	Additionally, check the session log. These statuses alone do not indicate successful completion: after a synchronization, the previous status is restored; during automatic processing, the status is reset to Ready.

To check the background session of the selected synchronization entry:

Click on the Session ID to see if the session is still active.
Select View Session Log. The action may be located in the Troubleshooting group.
Check the last log entries for when and why the session was terminated. If there is an error, resolve the cause mentioned there before restarting the synchronization. If there are indications of a missing mapping, check the default mapping of the document library.

If the cause of the error cannot be identified or resolved, forward the error text along with the affected document library and subsite to the responsible administrator.

3. Successfully Complete Synchronization and Check Other Processes

After resolving the error, select the affected entry on the Document Entry Synchronization page and click on Start Synchronization. The interrupted synchronization can be continued from the point where it was stopped.
Wait for the processing to complete. Then check via the Session ID and View Session Log that the session has ended and the synchronization has completed without further errors.
Repeat this check for all document libraries and subsites for which you want to recreate metadata.
Check for other troubleshooting or background processes on the respective pages from which they were started to see if the processing is still running. Wait for their completion before starting the metadata recreation.

4. Restart or Continue Metadata Recreation

Once all affected libraries have been successfully synchronized and no other troubleshooting or background processes are running on them:

Open the Metadata Recreation page again under Troubleshooting in the Role Center.
Select the affected entries.
Click on Start Recreation for manual processing. For automatic processing, select Status → Set to Ready; for this, the task queue Document Central Job Queue – Recreate Metadata must be set up.
Then check the processing status of the metadata recreation.

Important

The action Reset deletes the previous processing progress. Use it only if the recreation should start completely from the beginning.