Synced articles & the sync button

Some vaults are filled automatically from an external source — a directory, a Confluence space or a SharePoint folder. This page explains what that means for you as a user: the banner on synced articles, taking over an article, and the “Sync now” button.

What is a synced article?

For a synced article the external source is authoritative: when the source document changes, the article is overwritten on the next sync run — even if you edited it in the meantime. A notice banner in the article view and in the editor warns you about exactly that. Saving stays allowed (e.g. for a quick typo fix), but your change only lasts until the source changes next.

You can recognise such articles by the frontmatter field sync_managed: true.

Taking over an article permanently (opt-out)

If you want to maintain an article yourself from now on, remove the sync_managed field from the frontmatter in the editor:

1. Open the article in the editor.
2. In the frontmatter (the block between the --- lines at the top), delete the line sync_managed: true.
3. Save.

From now on the article is an independent copy and will never be overwritten again. The flip side: it also no longer receives updates from the source — changes to the source document won’t reach it anymore.

The “Sync now” button

The button appears above the tree view of the knowledge base when both of these are true:

• the selected vault is the target of a sync configuration, and
• you may write there (as an admin, or in your own personal vault).

Otherwise it is invisible. Clicking it starts the run immediately; the tree view reloads afterwards.

Reading the result line

After the run a summary appears: “Sync finished: X new, Y changed, Z removed, F failed.”

• “A sync is already running for this vault.” — a run is already in progress (your double click, or the schedule); nothing is started twice, just wait.
• A red error line states the reason if the run fails.

Desktop: “Sign in & sync”

If the Microsoft sign-in for a SharePoint source has expired, on the desktop the button shows “Sign in & sync” instead of its normal label:

1. Click the button — the Microsoft sign-in opens in your system browser.
2. Sign in; a “sign-in successful” page appears — you can close the browser window.
3. The sync starts right away. Afterwards the scheduled syncs run automatically in the background again.

On the web, this spot shows “Re-authentication by admin required” instead — contact your administrator. The person responsible there is whoever owns the sync: they reconnect their Microsoft account under Administration → Knowledge sync on the “Microsoft connection for scheduled SharePoint syncs” card.

Archived articles

If the source document was deleted, the behaviour depends on the admin setting: the article may be marked as archived (status: archived) or disappear entirely. If the source document reappears later, an archived article is reactivated automatically.

Where to go next

• Set up and operate knowledge-base sync — the admin view: sources, schedule, reports
• Archive a document or folder
• Deep dive: RBAC & confidentiality