Using the Restore Deleted Records plugin to retrieve lost data

[Yvonntje]

We all have been there... You are searching around and realize that you inadvertently deleted some records. Because it is better to be proactive rather than reactive, I suggest that you enable a certain plugin that makes restoring data a breeze. The "Restore deleted records" function, is a plugin that is not active by default in the base system. It allows you to restore records from the moment you enable the plugin and onwards, so the sooner you activate it the safer you are.

There are limitations regarding the tracking of deleted records in ServiceNow that we must consider before we go about retrieving and restoring any lost records.

Limitations of location records:

1. Record deletions are not tracked on tables with the no_audit_delete=true dictionary attribute.

2. File attachments are not restored when the record is restored.

3. Deletions from tables with a sys prefix are not tracked. To track deletions from these tables, add the table name to the glide.ui.audit_deleted_tables property.

With that in mind, let's go about restoring our deleted data.

Restoring Deleted Data:

Most people are not aware that relationships to other records are not tracked. That makes restoring the record a little useless since all of the links will be broken. With the Restore deleted records function, it saves your record history so that it can be retrieved in case of an emergency or accidental deletion.

You can use this link to navigate there:

<YOURINSTANCE>.service-now.com/nav_to.do?uri=v_plugin.do?sys_id=com.snc.undelete

Alas, undelete and (woo!) retrieved, the relationships are restored as well. Keep in mind that it will only restore the relationships of records that were deleted after the plugin was enabled of course. I figured it was time to share this little tid bit and encourage you to hit "activate" and install the plugin now, before it is too late.

**If you do restore your data and notice that the original "created on" value was not restored, see Restore deleted record does not bring back the original sys_created_on value.**