Recover accidental deletion of workflow history

Symptom

The wrong workflow history was purged using the NWAdmin operation PurgeHistoryListData.

Cause

Dates or other criteria were incorrectly entered.

Note: For more information about purging workflow history, see Workflow data maintenance.

Resolution

You can recover accidentally purged workflow history by restoring the databases, adding the restored databases to Nintex Workflow, and mapping the restored databases.

To recover purged workflow history

1. Using (Undefined variable: BrandingThirdParty.SQL Server Management Studio), restore the following databases: 

   • The backed up Nintex content databases that contained the accidentally purged workflow history.

   • The SharePoint content databases that were mapped to these Nintex content databases.

2. Add the restored Nintex content database to Nintex Workflow.

   1. On the Central Administration Home page, click Nintex Workflow Management.

   2. Click Database setup.

   3. Click Add content database.

   4. Under Database Name, enter the name of the restored Nintex content database and then select the check box for Connect to an existing database.

   5. Edit other settings as needed and then click OK.

3. Map the restored Nintex content database to the restored SharePoint content database.

   1. On the Central Administration Home page, click Nintex Workflow Management.

   2. Click Database setup.

   3. Click Manage database mappings.

   4. In the row for the restored SharePoint content database, under Map to Workflow Content Database, select the restored Nintex content database.

   5. Click OK.

      These changes can take up to 15 minutes to take effect.

   6. To make changes take effect more quickly, do one of the following:

      • Run the IISreset command to reset IIS.

      • Deactivate and reactivate the Nintex Workflow feature for the site collection: From Settings, click Site collection features (under Site Collection Administration) and then click Deactivate; when the deactivation is complete, click Activate.

        This action forces SharePoint to look at the mapping table in SQL Server.

        Note: Changes may take effect in SQL Server before taking effect in SharePoint. To check status in SQL Server, look for the mapping in (Undefined variable: BrandingThirdParty.SQL Server Management Studio): Find the primary ID of the new Nintex database in dbo.Database, then search for that ID in ContentDbMapping (which maps SharePoint content databases to Nintex content databases).