#Check for Broken Links

The Check Broken Link feature searches for broken links that cannot be accessed in SharePoint. We recommend running this rule following restructuring, replication, or any other type of content migration to ensure the integrity of data. This can also be run proactively as a “good housekeeping” job to ensure users have the best experience in navigation. It then generates a job report, which includes information such as searched pages, searched URLs, and broken links.

When sharing a document using Get a link, the URL redirects to the page where this document resides. When deleting the document, the URL will not be returned as a broken link during a scan because the Check Broken Link function cannot determine if the source document is deleted.

To check broken links, complete the following steps:

1. Select the Scope of the content (from group level to site level).

2. Click Management > Check Link > Check Broken Link. The Check Broken Link screen appears.

3. Enter a Plan Name. A default plan name in the format Check Broken Link HH:MM:SS YYYY-MM-DD is provided.

   • Click Check next to the plan name to check whether the specified plan name is available. A green check mark indicates that the specified plan name is available. A warning message appears if the specified plan name already exists and some suggested plan names are listed beneath.

   • Add an optional Description.

4. From the Link Type Selection section, select the link types that you want to check.

   By selecting the E-mail addresses link type, Check Broken Link will check and report all e-mail addresses in the page contents no matter whether the e-mail addresses are broken. If a Check Broken Link job completes successfully, access Job Monitor > View Details > E-mail Address to view e-mail address details. All e-mail addresses and their locations will be listed.

5. Select the URL Filter policy for the URL scan.

   • No filter – Select this option to check all links’ URLs.

   • Include URLs that match the criteria – Select this option and enter the URL of the links that you want to check. In the displayed area, enter the full URL or keywords of the links to specify the checking scope before performing the broken links checking job. If you enter a keyword, all URLs that contain the keyword will be associated.

   • Exclude URLs that match the criteria – Select this option and enter the URL of the links that you do not want to check. In the displayed area, enter the full URL or keyword of the links to specify the checking scope before performing the broken links checking job. If you enter a keyword, all URLs that contain the keyword will be associated.

6. Select a scheduling option.

   • No schedule – Select this option to manually run jobs of this plan without a schedule.

   • Configure the schedule myself – Select this option to configure a customized schedule, and run jobs of this plan by schedule. Fill in the parameters according to your desired schedule. After configuring the schedule for the search, click Calendar View to view the scheduled search by day, week, or month.

7. Select a previously created user notification profile from the Notification drop-down list or select New Notification to configure a new user notification.

8. Click Save and Run Now or Save on the lower-right section of the screen. The broken link search plan is now listed in Plan Manager.