Knowledge article validity is the date a knowledge article expires. Articles do not appear in search results after the Valid to date or if the Valid to date is blank.

Decide when to expire a knowledge article by using the Valid to field in the Knowledge form. The Knowledge form is available when creating or editing a knowledge article.

When you create or edit a knowledge article, a default value appears in the Valid to field. As an article author or editor, you can select whether to keep or change the default Valid to date.

Note: If the system date format or user preferences is set to use yy year format, you might face issues when the Valid to date is set to the default date. Contact your system administrator or modify the user preferences to use a date format with the yyyy year format. For more information, see Global date and time field format and Personalize the system date format topics.

Default article validity when creating a knowledge article

The default value of the Valid to field is derived from the Article Validity field configured for the knowledge base (see Create a knowledge base). The Valid to date starts from the date the article was created until the number of days specified in the Article Validity field. If the Article Validity field is blank, the default date in the Valid to field for the knowledge article is set to January 1, 2100.

Default article validity when editing a knowledge article

If the article versioning feature is enabled, the default value of the Valid to date in the updated article version is automatically set as described in the following table.

Table 1. Valid to date in the updated article version
Article Validity value in the associated knowledge base Valid to default value Notes
Blank Earlier version Valid to date value If the Article Validity field in the knowledge base associated with the article is blank, the Valid to date value from the earlier version of the article is retained.
Is not blank Article updated date + article validity If the Article Validity field in the knowledge base associated with the article is not blank, the Valid to date is automatically updated to start from the date the article was updated until the number of days specified in the Article Validity field.

If you move a knowledge article to another knowledge base, the default value of the Valid to date in the updated article is automatically set as described in the following table.

Table 2. Valid to date when moving a knowledge article to another knowledge base
Article Validity value in the updated knowledge base Valid to default value Notes
Blank Earlier Valid to date value If the Article Validity field in the selected knowledge base is blank, the earlier Valid to date value is retained for the knowledge article.
Is not blank Article updated date + article validity If the Article Validity field in the selected knowledge base isn't blank, the Valid to date is automatically updated to start from the date the article was updated until the number of days specified in the Article Validity field.
Note: If the dictionary value of the Valid to field is modified, this dictionary value overrides the default value of the Valid to field calculated according to the Article Validity field.

Email notifications for expiring knowledge articles

On the first day of each month, the application sends an email notification to a list of authorized recipients to remind them about articles that are about to expire in the next month. The recipient can then extend the Valid to date to continue using the article. For more information, see Managing email notifications in Knowledge Management.