# Adding metadata

> Give the files you archive a SharePoint content type and fill in its columns with Add metadata, copy values between attachments, and see which fill themselves.

Source: https://getmailconnect.com/docs/using-mailconnect/metadata/

If your organisation allows it, you can give each file you archive a SharePoint
content type, and fill in its columns, before it's saved. Your organisation
decides whether **Add metadata** is there.

## Adding metadata to a file

1. In the **Archive** panel, or in the drop review, select **Add metadata** on a file.
2. **Content type**: **Choose a content type** from the ones the library offers.
3. Fill in its fields. Required fields have an asterisk (\*), and say **Required** if you leave them empty.
4. **Done** folds the form away. **Edit** opens it again, and **Remove metadata** takes it off the file.

![Add metadata on an attachment in the Archive panel: a content type chosen, its fields with an asterisk on the required ones, one that is empty saying Required, and “1 field missing” at the bottom](https://getmailconnect.com/docs/using-mailconnect/metadata/metadata-form.png)

The fields work like SharePoint's own: choices, people, dates, managed metadata
terms, lookups, links, yes/no and numbers. Dates use your
[date format](https://getmailconnect.com/docs/using-mailconnect/your-settings.md), and times are saved in the
library's time zone, which the form names.

You can't archive until every file you added metadata to has its required fields:
the panel says how many are missing, for example **1 field missing**, or
**Metadata missing on 1 of 3 files** with several files. Some required columns can't be filled in
from MailConnect. The form then says
**These required properties must be filled in SharePoint afterwards:**, followed
by their names.

## Several attachments

- **Copy from…**, on an attachment, copies the content type and values from another attachment you've already filled in.
- **Metadata on selected** fills the same values on every ticked attachment: **Metadata for 3 selected attachments**. Leave a field empty if it differs per file, then select **Apply to 3 selected**. **Undo** takes it back.

If you change a file that others were copied from, MailConnect offers to update
them too: **Update those too**.

## Columns filled in by themselves

Your organisation can also have MailConnect fill in some SharePoint columns by
itself, such as the sender, the subject and when the email was sent, and give
archived emails and attachments their own content type. You don't do anything for
that.

If metadata couldn't be saved, the result screen says so under the file, for
example **Properties were not saved** or
**Archived, but properties could not be set**, with **Try again** (or **Edit**,
when a value needs changing). The file itself is archived either way.