Search for Deleted Records

Learn how to search for and retrieve deleted social media records in Social Media Archiving, including which records are automatically tagged as deleted and how to filter for them using Advanced Search.

Records requests for deleted records are increasingly common. Fortunately, it is easy to search for and pull those records. Records deleted on all social networks are automatically tagged in the system. System Admin users can also apply tags to records manually.

Important Note

Some information, such as who deleted a record or when it was deleted, isn't available. This data isn't provided to Social Media Archiving when social media content is deleted. Records are tagged as “deleted” when the system notices that the content is gone during its normal content checks.

Instructions

1. Log in to Social Media Archiving

2. Navigate to the Search tab:

3. Click the Advanced Search tab:

   

4. Refine your search using the Date Range, Content Types, and Scope options, if desired:

   Note:

   These options help narrow your results further but aren't required to find deleted records. The Search Terms options in steps 5 through 9 are what filter specifically for deleted records.

   1. Choose the desired Date Range for the search:

   2. Check the ‘Search only content that was posted within this date range’ checkbox if desired:

      

   3. Select the desired Content Types:

      Notes:

      • By default, all content types are selected. You can pick specific categories for each social media network by clicking the social media icon and selecting the content types you want to search:

        

      • You can also click the Clear option to deselect all social media icons and their associated content types. You can then click the desired social media icons to select specific content types:

   4. Select the Scope of the search:

      

      • All social accounts: Include all social media accounts in the search

      • Specific accounts: Include selected social media accounts in the search results

        Note:

        If you select ‘Specific Accounts’ for the search scope, you will need to fill in some additional fields:

        

        • All accounts owned by dropdown: Select an account option:

          • All accounts owned by: Select this option to include accounts owned by specific users in the search results. You will click the Select account owner dropdown and select the user whose social media accounts you want to include.

          • Specific account (not pictured): Select this option to include specific social media accounts in the search results. You will click the Select account dropdown and select the social media accounts you want to include.

        • Add more accounts: Click this link to add additional account owners or specific accounts to the search.

5. Select a Search Terms match option:

   

   • Match all: Only include records that match every search term line in the search results

   • Match any: Include records that match any of the search terms in the search results

6. Click the ‘Text’ dropdown and select the Tag option:

   

7. Ensure the ‘is’ option is selected in the second dropdown:

   

   Note:

   The ‘is’ option is selected by default when ‘Tag’ is selected in the first Search Terms dropdown.

8. Click the Select a tag dropdown and select the deleted option:

   

9. Click the add another term link to add an additional search term to your search, if desired:

   

10. Click the Search button:

    

11. Your search results will load: