While testing a Records Library in SharePoint 2010, the records will become locked and undeclaring records one by one (if you have the capability to undeclare records enabled through your Library and Site Records Declaration Settings) can be a tedious task. There may be others times when a content migration could go wrong, the Content Organizer might route to the wrong location, etc. in which you need to clear out the records in bulk without deleting the Records Library.

To be clear, I am old school when it comes to records. Once declared, I believe they should stay until the day of disposition… but even I need to test or clean up items that are clearly outside of the intent of the Records Management Program Office.

To that end, I have created the following script to allow a SharePoint Administrator the capability to selectively bulk undeclare records (in case you don’t want to undeclare everything). You will need to create a .CSV file named RecordsList.CSV with the following headings:

SiteURL
RecordLibraryName
RecordID

Here is the script, including notes. You will need to copy the script into NotePad and save it with the .ps1 extension and run it from your SharePoint 2010 Web Front End Server in the directory listed in the script notes.  Enjoy!

# Author: Kelly Rusk
# Website: thebitsthatbyte.com
# Created Date: May 7, 2012
# Description:
#
# This script selectively bulk undeclares records as listed in
# the RecordList.csv. The Record ID is the ID of the item in the library.
# You will need to pull the IDs from the library itself by creating a view.
# This intent of this script is for cleaning up test Records Libraries, or
# libraries where the records were mistakenly placed.
# The .CSV needs to be saved to “C:\PowerShell\” directory.
# If this directory does not exist, you will need to create it.
#
# Running this script requires running PowerShell with elevated privileges so right
# click the SharePoint 2010 Management Shell and select “Run as administrator” then use
# change directory commands and tabs to run the PS1 from its directory.

$SPAssignment = Start-SPAssignment
$undeclarelist = Import-Csv -path c:\PowerShell\RecordsList.csv
$undeclarelist | ForEach-Object {
$SPWeb = Get-SPWeb $($_.’SiteURL’) -AssignmentCollection $spAssignment
$SPList = $SPWeb.Lists["$($_.'RecordLibraryName')"]
$SPItem = $SPList.GetItemById(“$($_.’RecordID’)”) [Microsoft.Office.RecordsManagement.RecordsRepository.Records]::UndeclareItemAsRecord($SPItem)}
Stop-SPAssignment $SPAssignment