Administration
Installing, upgrading, moving, and maintaining your Content Central server.
Add a user and control what they can see
Create a new user account, understand how group and direct permissions combine, and grant exactly the document access the person needs — starting read-only and widening from there.
Back up your Content Central database
Take a verified backup of the Content Central SQL database in two commands — and know the four other things a complete restore point needs.
Backup, export, or audit trail? Getting data out of Content Central
Four different things hide behind 'I need a backup of everything' — a SQL database backup, a document download, a metadata CSV, and the audit history. Pick the right one in two minutes.
Catch duplicate documents with field checks
Turn on per-field duplicate detection — the invoice-number-per-vendor scoping included — and know how it actually behaves at each surface: a warning at capture, a hard stop in the coding queue.
Configuration Manager: what lives where
The server-side companion app, screen by screen: SQL Settings, the eleven System Folders, Active Directory domains, the read-only License panel, workflow's External Applications and Export Data, and the Health exclusions — plus the Apply-per-screen rule that governs all of it.
Configure outgoing email
Connect Content Central to your mail system — classic SMTP or OAuth2 for Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace — so notifications, approvals, and the E-mail document action all work, with the test that proves it.
Content Central feels slow: report it so it gets fixed fast
Turn a vague 'it's slow' into one timed, reproducible sample — plus the matching logs if you're an administrator — so support can find the cause instead of guessing.
Content Central seems hung up
When capture or workflow looks stalled: how to tell which one it is, restart the right service safely, read the event logs, and know exactly what to send support if it doesn't clear.
Content Central system requirements
What the server needs before you install — IIS, .NET, SQL Server, a 64-bit application pool — what the installer brings along itself, and the built-in health page that checks your environment for you.
Content Director won't connect
The server side of Edit failures: the WCF services Content Director calls, the Windows feature whose absence turns them into 404.3, the browser-address subtlety that breaks workstations, and which event log holds the truth.
Control sessions and automatic logout
The inactivity timer and what users see when it fires, the remember-me switches, and the hidden license-eviction setting — plus how sessions and license seats actually relate.
Cover an absence with user substitution
Date-bounded stand-ins for approvals and work queues: the two system switches (both matter), the admin- and self-service ways to set a substitute, and exactly how the coverage starts and stops.
Customize notification message templates
The wording of every email and internal message the system sends — templates with insertable codes for document values, the Email-versus-Internal type choice that decides delivery, and the visibility setting that controls who can use each one.
Delete a catalog, document type, or workflow: the dependency checklist
Find and clear every dependency — documents, queues, in-flight approvals, workflow rules, templates, and capture settings — before you delete, so the delete succeeds cleanly and nothing breaks afterward.
Document type permissions, explained
The complete map of who can do what, per document type — every permission, the group/user/creator layers, how grants add up with no deny, and the three extra switches hiding on the same page.
Drop-down fields: choices, sources, multi-select
The field-configuration reference for lists: the three places choices can come from, the allow-new and multi-select switches and how they exclude each other, and the dependent lists that narrow with each answer.
Duplicate a catalog or approval workflow safely
Copy a catalog, document type, or workflow component through a supported path, then validate the copy against a checklist before anyone builds on it — including what to do when a copy comes out empty.
Export all your documents from Content Central
Take your document files and their metadata out of Content Central yourself: a built-in bulk download for small sets, and a scripted, resumable export through the transfer service for everything. Works the same whether Content Central is on your server or hosted by Ademero.
Export documents and their metadata
Export document files and a matching metadata CSV from Content Central using the supported paths — search export, report templates, or workflow actions — scoped, size-planned, and validated against the source.
Find out what's locking a file
Use Microsoft's free Process Explorer to name the exact program holding a file open — the fastest answer to a capture stall, an undeletable file, or any 'in use by another process' error.
Find your Content Central version
The three places the version shows — the login page footer, System Health's installation details, and the Classic page header — and which number to read to support.
Fix 'Request URL Too Long' (HTTP 414)
Why huge multi-select operations can hit HTTP 414, the two registry values that actually fix it — the web.config limits everyone raises first are not the problem — and why current installers make this rare.
Fix SSL certificate errors with single sign-on
The certificate requirements SSO actually has — subject name, store, and the private-key permission that certlm.msc grants — plus the health check that validates the configuration and the intermittent failure that isn't a certificate problem at all.
Fix the 'File is locked' commit error
When committing from the coding queue fails with 'The coding could not be committed' and the server log says 'File is locked' — the real lock causes, and the permissions failure that wears the same message.
Folder and file building
Make Content Central name files and build folder paths from field values automatically — the item-by-item pattern builder, the live example that shows what you'll get, and the truth about already-filed documents.
How signing in works: local, Active Directory, and SSO
Understand Content Central's three sign-in layers — local accounts, Active Directory, and SAML single sign-on — and why every one of them still ends at a Content Central user record with permissions.
How user licenses work
Concurrent seats, the newest-login-wins rule and the message evicted users see, where the license panel lives now, and why there's no key to type anymore.
Install Content Central
From setup.exe to a working login page — the all-defaults path where the installer does everything, the your-own-SQL-Server path where one Configuration Manager step remains, and the two things to change before anyone else logs in.
Limit document access by field value
Row-level-style security: one global field becomes the boundary, each user gets the values they may see, and everything else silently disappears — including the three semantics you must know before trusting it.
Move Content Central to a new server
Copy your documents, restore your database, and let the Migration Assistant re-point, rebuild, and verify everything — a complete walkthrough.
Notification emails aren't sending
Find which of the five layers of Content Central's e-mail pipeline is failing — connection, sign-in, trigger, template, or delivery — by testing them in order.
Offboard a user without breaking approvals
Disable a departing employee's account, hand their waiting approvals to a named replacement, reassign everything else that depends on them — queues, checkouts, searches — and delete the account cleanly later.
Plan a Content Central test environment
Decide whether you need a full test copy, know the four things a real copy requires — and use the worksheet that keeps a test server from emailing customers or pushing real data.
Point Content Central at a renamed or moved SQL database
Rename or move your Content Central database in SQL Server, then retarget Content Central through Configuration Manager — in the right order, with tests that prove the connection before anyone logs back in.
Serve Content Central over HTTPS: install or renew your SSL certificate
Renew an expiring certificate in two steps, or move an HTTP site to HTTPS properly — including the two Content Central settings that won't update themselves.
Set password policy and self-service reset
Password rules, lockout, and the question-and-answer reset that puts 'Forgot your password?' on the login page — including the two switches that must both be on, and the expiration setting that takes effect immediately.
Set up a new user like an existing user
There's no copy button for users — here's the ordered recipe that reproduces an existing user's access correctly, and the two places where copying blindly goes wrong.
Set up Active Directory login
Connect Content Central to your Windows domain so people sign in with their AD passwords — the Configuration Manager setup, importing the users, and what stays true afterward.
Set up document retention policies
Make documents of a type delete themselves on schedule after their retention period — set the period and the destruction schedule, exempt individual documents, and control who's allowed to override.
Set up multi-factor authentication
Turn on authenticator-app sign-in for one account or require it for everyone — enrollment with QR code and recovery codes, the admin enforcement switch, and how to rescue a user who lost their phone.
Set up your first catalog, fields, and document types
Build the structure documents file into — a catalog, its document types, and the fields that describe them — including global fields you define once and reuse everywhere.
The Content Central login page won't open
Match what your browser shows — server not found, connection refused, an HTTP error, or failing links — to the fix, and know exactly what to send support if you're still stuck.
Troubleshooting a Content Central migration
Find your symptom, see what it actually means, and fix it — stored paths, folder permissions, search indexes, licensing, and the other usual suspects after a server move.
Upgrade Content Central
Back up, run the installer, update the database, verify — the complete in-place upgrade procedure, including the one step people miss and the 7.8 lookup-list gotcha.
What happens to our documents if we stop using Content Central?
Your documents and data are yours, and you can take all of them with you at any time. Here are the ways to get them out, and the 30-day retrieval window that applies when Ademero hosts your system.
What to know before moving Content Central to a new server
The five decisions and preparations that determine whether your server move is a smooth afternoon or a long weekend — read this before touching anything.