Retired KB Articles are still viewable from URL using sys_id

[suzettes]

I've looked in community and found one article about why retired KB articles are still viewable via a URL but I think it might be outdated.  So I'm posting a new question.  We have a retired public KB that is still viewable by anyone.  It doesn't come up in the search on our portal.  But we have another part of our site that is pointing a URL directly to the article using the sys_id and are concerned for other KB's that might also be using URL's pointing to retired KB's.  The URL is using a sys_id for an older version of the article but it resolves to the most recent version sys_id.  All versions show the workflow is set to retired.  We are on Vancouver.  Any suggestions?  

[Sandeep Rajput]

@suzettes Please refer to this thread https://www.servicenow.com/community/knowledge-managers/why-are-retired-articles-viewable-on-service... and see if the responses posted here address your question.

[suzettes]

Thanks Sandeep.  that is the article I saw earlier but when I tested it, permalink does work for retired KB's and for users with limited access or no access(not logged into the portal.)  Do you know if there's a way to set a KB article to active=false?

[Bidduam]

Hi @suzettes 

I've tested this myself and found that once an article is fully retired - as in there is no longer a published version even using the permalink no one with standard access should be able to access it anymore:

Have you ensured that there is definitely no published versions still?

Are those who can still access the knowledge article standard users with no higher roles?

Obviously ensuing any links to the knowledge articles on other web pages should also be removed if the article is retired as accessing an out of date / retired article isn't good, but being advised you don't have access or the article doesn't exist doesn't look professional either.

The only other idea I could suggest if you still have an issue once you are sure there are no published versions and no higher roles, you could potentially look at a knowledge base especially for retired articles with restricted access to that knowledge base and move them into there. Although this should really not be needed. 

[suzettes]

Thank you Bidduam.  Yeah, i've tested without even being logged into our portal.  The retired article is a public article so I'm not sure if that's affecting it.  But yes, I verified that all versions are in a workflow state of retired.  The other issue is that since the URL's are using the sysid, then it makes it even harder to find.    

Moving them to another KB might be a viable option.