Question:

How to change the Lifecycle of a document with a Document Type that has two or more Lifecycles without losing information?

Answer:

To work with a document that has a Document type with multiple Lifecycles, make a copy of the document. By doing this, Vault allows the selection of the Lifecycle of the copy. 

Copied Documents maintain a link with the original document, displayed in the Based on section in the document information.

NOTE: Creating a copy in Vault creates a separate new document, while the old document is in the old Lifecycle.  This generates possible interference with Vault functions such as Reports or Auto-Matching. 

To change the Lifecycle of a document without making a copy, reclassify the document to another Document Type (Placeholder Document type) with the desired Lifecycle. Then, reclassify back to the original Document Type.

In order to not lose the document information, follow these steps:

1. Add the target Lifecycle to the original Document Type.
2. Create a Placeholder Document Type and assign the target Lifecycle for the document.
3. Add document fields from the original Document Type to the Placeholder Document Type.
4. Reclassify the document from the original Document Type to the Placeholder Document Type.
5. Reclassify the document back to the original Document Type. Keep the target Lifecycle. 

NOTE: Reclassifying the documents from the original Document Type to the Placeholder document type sends the documents to the DRAFT state.

Related Documentation:

Vault Reclassification Documentation: Reclassifying Documents