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Object Record and Document Deletion Guidelines in Veeva Vault

  • Updated

Overview:

Notes:

The objectives of this Knowledge Article are as follows:

  1. Provide summary information regarding Document and Object Record retention in Veeva Vault
  2. Share limitations, guidelines, and best practices related to Document and Object Record deletion in Veeva Vault

The focus is on cases where a user performs a deletion action in a Veeva Vault Production or Sandbox environment. This also includes deletions using (Legacy) Document or Object Workflows.

Table of Contents:

Logging of Document Deletions

Document deletions may be reviewed by navigating to the Admin --> Logs --> Document Audit History tab. The tab displays the date and time of the deletion, the username that performed the deletion, the Document Number, the Document version, and the event of the deletion.

The same steps are applied to Document Placeholders.

The Audit Trail on Documents is enabled by default and cannot be disabled. It is required to have the necessary permissions to be able to access the Document Audit History and the Audit Trail of Documents.

The following screenshots show the Delete action, which is the equivalent of deleting an entire Document, including its versions. Each event is tied to one Document. Filters may be applied to narrow down the results further.

Document

Document

Document

Logging of Object Record Deletions

Object Record deletions may be reviewed by navigating to the Admin --> Logs --> Object Record Audit History tab. The tab displays the date and time of the deletion, the username that performed the deletion, the record, and the event of the deletion. Filters may be applied to narrow down the results.

In the event the Audit Trail (Audit data changes in this object) is not turned on in the Options section of the Vault Object, the Delete event will not appear in the Object Record Audit History, as the Audit Events are not captured on the object.

It is also required to have the necessary permissions to be able to access the Object Record Audit History and the Audit Trail of Object Records.

The following screenshots show the Delete action, which is equivalent to permanently deleting an Object Record. When a user deletes an Object Record, the Object Record Audit History captures information about deleted records, such as their Object Type and Field values. Filters may be applied to narrow down the results further.

Object

Object

Object

Report and Dashboard Deletion Limitations

Reports and Dashboards cannot be recovered in Veeva Vault. In the event a Report or Dashboard is deleted in a Vault instance, it becomes inaccessible.

Object Record Deletion Limitations

Object, Object Record, Object Relationship, and Object Field restoration are not possible in Veeva Vault. In the event any of these Vault elements are deleted, they become inaccessible. This also applies to the Object Record related references such as Object Record related Attachments.

The IDs of the deleted Object Records can be retrieved for 30 days using the Retrieve Deleted Object Record ID Endpoint of the Vault API. This endpoint only retrieves the IDs, not the Object Records themselves.

Access the Table of Contents here.

Document and Binder Deletion Limitations

Deleting a Document will result in the following outcomes on the Vault User Interface (UI):

  • All Versions of the Document are removed 
  • Any related Notifications, outgoing relationships, and outgoing reference links are deleted
  • Any Annotations associated with the Renditions of the Document are deleted
  • Any Document-level Comments are deleted
  • The Document from all views of the users is removed. This also includes the Favorites view
  • The Audit Trail of the deleted Document is preserved in the Document Audit History for Vault System Administrators

The following table provides an overview of the recoverability of related features and items in the event Document deletion occurs. More information on specific Items or Features can be accessed underneath the table.

Item or Feature Recoverable? Notes and Actions
Source File Yes See below for information and recovery steps

Document Placeholder

 Yes See below for information and recovery steps

Renditions

 Partially Yes See below for more information
Document Audit Trail Partially Yes See below for more information
Document Versions Partially Yes See below for more information
Document Attachments No Manual reupload is necessary
Document-level Comments No Manual recreation is necessary
Document to Document Relationships No Manual recreation is necessary
Listed in the Audit Trail of the restored Document
Document to Object Relationships No Manual recreation is necessary
Checkout State No Manual recreation is necessary
Binder & Binder Template No Manual recreation is necessary
See below for workarounds
Binder References No Manual recreation is necessary
The Document is not affected if its Binder is deleted
Universal Legal Holds No Manual recreation is necessary
Reference Anchors No Manual recreation is necessary
Distributions from Content Distribution Network No Manual recreation is necessary
Document Notifications No Manual recreation is necessary
Crosslink Relationships No Manual recreation is necessary
Presence in Cart No Manual recreation is necessary
Presence in User Recents and Favorites No Manual recreation is necessary


The Document and its recoverable items are not fully purged from the system at the time of deletion. The infrastructure stores deleted Documents for approximately 30 days. After 30 days, recovery of deleted Documents is not guaranteed. This is also applied to Document Placeholders.

All Document Versions can be restored in case they were deleted at the same time as a result of an entire Document deletion. If a specific version was already not present at the time of deletion, it cannot be restored. If specific Document Versions are deleted from an existing Document, these versions cannot be restored.
The same situation is also applied to Viewable (Manual) Renditions across document versions. If a Rendition is deleted of an existing Document, it cannot be restored, however, restoring an entirely deleted Document restores its Rendition as well.

It is also not possible to:

  • Restore Document Relationships (Document to Document) in Veeva Vault. In the event a Document is restored, its previously accessible Document Relationships will be listed in the Audit Trail. Manual recreation of the Document Relationship is necessary.
  • Restore only the Audit Trail of the Document itself in the event when the Document has been already deleted. The entire Document needs to be recovered which includes the restoration of its Audit Trail as well. 
  • Restore Document Attachments. When a Document Attachment is deleted from a Document, the Attachment cannot be recovered. The user is required to manually reupload the deleted Attachment file.
  • Restore applied Universal Legal Holds. Any desired Legal Holds are required to be added to the restored documents manually.

Binders and Binder Templates cannot be restored in Veeva Vault. Documents that were in Binders are not affected unless they were individually deleted. Users have two options to rebuild the Binder after it is deleted: 

  • Option 1: The creation and editing of the Binder structure are logged in the Document Audit History Log. Reconstruct the Binder by exporting the Document Audit History Log and filtering for that Document (Binder). This gives the user a log of the elements added to the Binder which persists after deletion. 
  • Option 2: If using existing Binder Templates, a user can create a new Binder from the template to make recreation easier.  This action does not restore the exact Binder but makes it easier than starting over completely if the Binder is similar to a template.

It is not possible to recover Folders that were deleted from Binders. Manual recreation is required.

Note:

There are particular scenarios that can prevent a Document from being deleted.
  • The Document is in an active Workflow
  • The Document has Inbound Relationships or Reference Links
  • The Document is in a Binder
  • The user attempting the deletion does not have the necessary permissions

Access the Table of Contents here.

Object Record Retrieval

It is not possible to retrieve deleted Object Records and their related references. Object Record related Attachments cannot be restored. 

The IDs of the deleted Object Records can be retrieved for 30 days using the Retrieve Deleted Object Record ID Endpoint of the Vault API. This endpoint only retrieves the IDs, not the Object Records themselves.

Document Retrieval

Veeva Product Support is able to restore Documents and their existing versions that are not beyond the 30-day period. In the event, the document was deleted more than 30 days ago, success is not guaranteed. This is also applied to Document Placeholders.

It is required to provide the following information for Veeva Product Support:

  • The affected Vault ID
  • The Document Number or the Document ID of the deleted Documents 

In the event Document retrieval is necessary, contact Veeva Product Support by raising a Vault Product Support Ticket on the Veeva Product Support Portal. It is required to provide the affected Vault ID and the Document Number in the Support Ticket.

Retrieving the Document Number of a deleted Document

In order to locate the Document Number of a deleted Document, follow the steps below.

Navigate to: Admin -> Logs, at the top of the page of the Document Audit History page.

To filter Document Audit History:

  1. In the picklist to the right of Timeframe, select a date range.
  2. Click on the blue Add filter button to additionally filter the audit log by Event. The operator: In and a second picklist appears. Select the Delete All Document Versions event from the second picklist. 
  3. Optional: Click on the blue Add filter button to additionally filter the Audit Log by User. The operator: Equals and a second picklist appear. Select the desired user(s) from the second picklist.
  4. Click Apply.
  5. Find the Document Number in the Item column.

Document


Retrieving the Document ID of an existing Document

In order to locate the Document ID of existing Documents, navigate to the following Knowledge Article: How to Retrieve the Document-Related IDs in Veeva Vault?

It is not possible to retrieve the Document ID of deleted Documents in Vault. However, in case the Document ID of the deleted Document is known from another source it can be provided to Veeva Product Support alternatively.

Access the Table of Contents here.

Prevention of Unplanned Deletion

Due to the limitations, it is recommended to consider preventing unintentional deletions. There are several ways the risk of accidental Object Record, Document loss can be significantly minimized.

These configurations or processes are as follows:

  • Assess the Access Control and Authorization by revising Security Profiles, Roles
  • Control deletion capabilities by restricting Delete permission from users on Documents and Object Records based on the risk and business requirements
  • It is recommended to ensure that the Power Delete Permission is only applied to the relevant Security Profiles as this permission allows users to bypass the Document deletion controls present for all other users
  • Configure Document Workflows or Object Workflows to secure and manage the deletion process
Notes:

Related Documentation:

Vault Help Documentation: 

I. Object Records and Documents:

II.  Logs and Access Control:

III. Table Items:

Knowledge Base:

Access the Table of Contents here.

 

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