Run a test discovery sweep

Last updated: August 25, 2026

Before you rely on a connected source for a real request, run a small sweep against it and check what comes back. A test sweep proves three things at once: the connection works, the scope behaves as you expect, and your officers know what results look like.

How to run one

  1. Open any request and go to Case/Media.
  2. Click New Case.
  3. Give it a Case name. Something obviously a test, so nobody mistakes it for live work.
  4. Fill in Description: what you are looking for and why. This is the record of intent, not just a label.
  5. Under Sources, use Add source and pick a connected source.
  6. Add one narrow condition on the next step. A single custodian over a short, known date range.
  7. Click Review, check the scope, then run it.

Creating a case records the intent. A separate discovery step runs it and brings back what matches, so the wizard never guesses at documents it has not yet found.

Choose something you already know the answer to

The point of a test sweep is not to find records. It is to check that a search you already know the answer to returns the answer you expect.

Pick a custodian and a date range where you know a particular message exists. If it comes back, the connection and the scope are both working. If it does not, you have learned that before a statutory deadline depended on it.

What to check in the results

  • The count. Wildly high suggests the scope is too loose; zero suggests it is too tight or the connection is not working.
  • The sources searched. Confirm it searched what you intended.
  • The flags. Results are triaged rather than accumulated, so check the flags appear and mean what your officers think they mean.

Empty is only meaningful if the connection was healthy

A failed connection is reported on the integration screen rather than as an empty result, which is precisely so an empty result can be trusted.

Check Settings, then Integrations before you conclude that nothing matched. That habit is worth building during a test sweep, when it costs nothing, rather than during a real request.

Do this again after any change

Re-run a test sweep after a license change, a tenant reconfiguration, or anything that touches consent in Microsoft 365. Those are the three things that quietly break a working connection.