Site Assets library suddenly disappeared

Question

In a specific site collection I lost a Site Assets library. I don't know what happened, the library just disappeared. In fact, SharePoint doesn't allow me to recreate a library with this same name, so I think the library content still is there, somewhere.

I'd like to know why the library has disappeared and how to recreate it, if needed.

"SharePoint Server Publishing Infrastructure" and "Wiki Page Home Page" features are activated in Site Settings

Answer 1

Normally some custom feature activation will create SiteAssets Library for migrated sites. If you are not able to see it then you can follow the below steps.

• Deactivate Wiki page library feature.
• Open the site in SP Designer.
• Navigate to the site and Delete SiteAssets Library
• Activate wiki page feature as this will recreate SitePages and SiteAssets library.

Answer 2

A feature has probably deployed some files to the SiteAssets path and SharePoint has automatically create a folder for it.

Open the site in SharePoint Designer or Explorer View mode, you should see a folder called SiteAssets, backup the contents, delete it and try recreating the library.

Answer 3

You can use the following PowerShell Script to print all lists of the web (including the hidden one). By this way you can check if the list is hidden or really deleted (by the way, did you check the recycle bin in the Site Collection Settings?)

function Print-Lists-OfWeb 
{
    <#   
    .EXAMPLE
        Print-Lists-OfWeb http://mysite
    #>

    [CmdletBinding()]
    param
    (
        [Parameter(Mandatory=$true)][System.String] $webUrl
    )

    $web = Get-SPWeb $webUrl;

    foreach($list in $web.Lists ) 
    {
        Write-Host $list.Title ("Hidden: " + $list.Hidden)       
    }
}