An overseas brand appoints a new agency to work with its Chinese product team. The old partner delivers a spreadsheet of creator posts. Some links no longer work, downloaded clips have unfamiliar names, and nobody can connect them to the relevant permission records. This is a hypothetical handover worth testing before a contract begins.
A growing creator library becomes useful when a future team can find a file, identify its product and establish what use is permitted. ONCE proposes a small recovery exercise as part of procuring UGC software or managed content services. The question is practical: what can your team reconstruct outside the original workspace using the service you are actually buying?
Two documented limits to investigate
Archive’s CSV Export Options in Archive, checked October 27, 2026, says its reporting exports cannot be re-imported unchanged. Re-importing content requires preparing original-post links; expired Story links cannot be imported that way, and directly uploaded content has no original-post URL.
Its September 7, 2026 hidden-content retention guide separately describes retention and eventual deletion of content hidden by capacity limits. Increasing capacity also requires an unlock action. That concerns a particular content state, not every asset in the service.
Neither document establishes that media downloads are unavailable or that a competing product is superior. Together, they suggest distinct procurement questions about reporting exports, media retrieval and retention. This is current documentation supporting an evergreen decision, not a claim that a new feature launched today.
ONCE’s recovery exercise has three objects
Agree what a small authorised sample should contain, then reconstruct it in a controlled folder or independent test workspace. Keep the original account and library intact.
| Object | What the receiving team should demonstrate |
|---|---|
| Media | Open the agreed file version and inspect picture, sound, duration and captions |
| Index | Match that file to its creator, product, source and internal asset identifier |
| Usage record | Locate the relevant permission, scope, term and approval record |
Connect these objects through a stable internal asset identifier. A renamed file or unavailable original post should not erase its identity. What may be retained or transferred, including personal information, depends on the actual agreement and applicable requirements. This is an operational exercise, not universal legal advice.
Choose samples that expose different retrieval routes
Where your business has them and may process them, include an ordinary post, content whose source link has expired, and a directly uploaded asset. Do not manufacture categories merely to complete a checklist.
Ask the supplier to deliver what the proposed plan includes. Have the receiving team perform three actions: open the media, retrieve it by an agreed product question, and connect it to its usage record. Record gaps rather than assuming a spreadsheet row represents a recovered asset.
For example, a pet-products brand might ask its new agency to locate a clip for a particular fountain that is permitted for organic publication in Germany. Finding a thumbnail alone does not complete that task. Neither does requiring the departing agency to log into the original platform every time. These are illustrative acceptance conditions, not observed failings of any named service.
Decide which dependencies are acceptable
Some material only needs reporting retention. Other licensed clips are intended for future editing and require files and supporting records. Recovery does not renew expired rights or make an asset eligible for advertising again.
Classify the exercise results as independently recovered, still dependent on the original service, or deliberately excluded from transfer. An exclusion can be sensible if the brand understands the consequence and the assistance needed later.
Distinguish final edits, platform downloads and source production materials. Buying a finished video does not automatically include an editing project, clean audio or footage the creator never agreed to deliver. If those objects matter to future localisation, negotiate them at intake.
Include the work of leaving in the comparison
Request the export scope, formats, volume restrictions, assistance, timing and charges, including the retrieval window around termination. Separate a vendor demonstration from entitlements confirmed for your account.
Alongside subscription and routine management, list the work required for a recovery exercise, missing-file collection, index rebuilding and permission-record matching. Leave unknowns visible when there is no observed basis for an estimate. No industry recovery rate or price is needed.
A successful sample proves only what that sample recovered under those conditions. It does not certify the entire library indefinitely. Revisit affected routes when suppliers, contracts, versions or important content types change; choose any recurring check according to operational need.
For ONCE’s managed-content model, portability can coexist with recurring value. Search, curation, collaboration and maintenance remain useful services even when clients can leave. A handover-ready library gives brands a more concrete basis for evaluating that service than the number of posts captured.
Before committing, provide a few authorised samples and ask the next team to find the files, identify them and establish their permitted use outside the original platform. Purchase the scope that the exercise demonstrates. The method is proposed; no customer test, savings or software endorsement is claimed.
