Downloading .zip file from eDiscovery Content Search (preview) using PowerShell

Question

Is there a way to download the .zip file created by a reports-only export action from PowerShell in the eDiscovery Content Search (preview)?

I have been using eDiscovery classic to generate reports using PowerShell, targeting metadata related to messaging interactions and frequency. My current script creates a search, waits for its completion, and then generates the export action for reports only. When the export completes, I use the local installation path of the unified export tool with the Azure blob storage URL and SAS token (obtained from get-compliancesearchaction status) to generate the report .csv file and save it locally before uploading it to S3 storage. This process works, but it is temperamental, and the unified export tool is expected to retire soon.

With recent updates to the Content Search (preview), I can now create and access content searches via PowerShell. In this preview version, when I create a reports-only export, a single zip file containing the reports of interest is generated. I hoped this file would be saved to the Azure blob location and accessible using AzCopy to move it directly to my S3 location. However, it seems that the blob storage only contains the raw .meta files for each message, even when the export is created through the portal or PowerShell.

Is there a method to download these .csv files from PowerShell without manually accessing the portal to click the download button? The searches take hours to run and need to be executed daily, making manual downloads impractical, especially considering the significant performance issues with loading the content search preview pages, which often take 5-10 minutes to load and fail about 75% of the time.

Additionally, searches created via PowerShell appear in the preview searches table, but exports do not. Does this indicate that the new-compliancesearchaction command is still linked to classic eDiscovery? If so, will this be addressed in future updates?

Answer 1

Hi @Brian MOffett

Greetings & Welcome to Microsoft Q&A forum! Thanks for posting your query!

Thank you for outlining your current workflow and the challenges you're facing with automating .zip file downloads from eDiscovery Content Search (preview).

Currently, there is no direct way to download the .zip file created by a reports-only export from the eDiscovery Content Search (preview) using only PowerShell. The preview feature mainly supports manual download of the .zip file through the Microsoft Compliance portal.

Yes, your observation is correct: searches created via PowerShell appearing in the preview searches table, while exports do not, indicates that the New-ComplianceSearchAction command is still partially linked to the classic eDiscovery experience. Currently we don't have any ETA for retiring classic eDiscovery tools and transitioning

Appreciate if you could share the feedback on our feedback channel. Which would be open for the user community to upvote & comment on. This allows our product teams to effectively prioritize your request against our existing feature backlog and gives insight into the potential impact of implementing the suggested feature.

I hope this information helps. Please do let us know if you have any further queries.

Thank you.