User documentation

Limitations

Written by Anjuli Juliana Weber | November 8, 2025

Product Version 1.13.2

Blobs are not deleted

When archived files are restored, the related blob is not deleted from Azure Blob Storage to enable user restores of moved or copied files.

A regular clean-up process to remove orphaned blobs will be added soon to resolve this issue.

Minor versions are not supported

ShArc supports SharePoint libraries using major versions. Libraries with minor versioning enabled are currently not supported and are skipped during archiving. Files in these libraries remain unchanged in SharePoint.

File overwritten when recreating an archived file

In a specific scenario, restoring an archived file may result in unexpected content:

1.
A file (file1.txt) is archived, and a .sharc file (file1.txt.sharc) is created.
2.
The .sharc file is moved to another site.
3.
A new file with the same name (file1.txt), but different content, is created in SharePoint.
4.
The second file is also archived, again resulting in a .sharc file named file1.txt.sharc.
5.
If the moved file1.txt.sharc on the other site is restored, it will be overwritten with the content of the second file1.txt.

This is a rare edge case and will be addressed in an upcoming update.

Unexpected content & invalid extension when recreating an archived file

In a specific scenario, restoring an archived file may result in incorrect content and an invalid file extension:

1.
A file (file1.txt) is archived, and its corresponding .sharc file (file1.txt.sharc) is created.
2.
A new file with the same name (file1.txt), but different content, is created in SharePoint.
3.
This second file is also archived, generating a new .sharc file named file1.txt1.sharc.
4.
If the original file1.txt.sharc is restored, it will be overwritten with the content of the second file1.txt.
5.
If file1.txt1.sharc is restored, its content will be correct, but its name will include an invalid "1" postfix (file1.txt1 instead of file1.txt).

This is a rare edge case and will be addressed in an upcoming update.

Archiving recently created media files

When media files (video and audio) are uploaded, SharePoint analyzes their metadata and extracts it. This process may occur with a considerable delay of up to 30 minutes after the file was uploaded. If a media file is archived before SharePoint has completed the metadata extraction, the media metadata may be attached to the stub (.sharc) file. This can cause SharePoint to continue treating the stub as a media file. When this happens, attempting to restore the file may display a SharePoint dialog stating that a preview is not available. In this case, clicking "Open" downloads the stub file. Opening the downloaded stub file will still restore the original media file to its original location. When using Microsoft Edge, .sharc files may be blocked and need to be explicitly permitted for download.

Cryptic error message during archive or restore

When running an archive or restore operation, a cryptic error message such as AggregateException_ctor_Defaultmessage or similar may sometimes be shown. This is not a critical error: the archive or restore operation is still running, and refreshing the browser will remove the error message.

"Estimation" and "Progress"

The "Estimation" section on the Archive page leverages SharePoint Search to quickly determine the expected number and size of files based on the configured conditions. Since the SharePoint search index is updated periodically and may not reflect recent changes immediately, these values can differ from the current state of the data. "Estimation" therefore provides an estimate based on the current SharePoint search index.

The same mechanism is used in the "Progress" view. When an archiving operation starts, ShArc initially displays the estimated values, which may be adjusted once the actual number and size of processed files are known.

Full text search

Files that have been archived can no longer be searched by their contents, as the content is no longer available in SharePoint. They may, however, still be searched for by name and metadata.

External users / users without license

Archived files cannot be restored by external users or users that do not have an Office 365 license assigned. In this case, an internal, licensed user must restore the file first before external users are able to access it.

SharePoint 'My Site'

Archiving files from the SharePoint 'My Site' (company-my.sharepoint.com) is currently not supported.

Multi-Geo Tenant

For Multi-Geo SharePoint tenants, only the PDL (Preferred Data Location) is supported.

Applying sensitivity and retention labels to already archived files is not supported

Applying sensitivity labels or retention labels to files that are already archived by ShArc is currently not supported.