SharePoint Config

Ari Bakker's thoughts on customising and configuring SharePoint

Issues with SharePoint 2010 major versioning

with 8 comments

There are a couple of issues with major versioning in SharePoint 2010 that prevent users saving files into document libraries. Things like this can be very frustrating for a client so it is worth being aware of these when designing SharePoint solutions in the hopes they are avoided. The issues are:

  • Saving files from Office 2007 fails when a document library has major versioning enabled and contains a required field
  • Copying files using Windows Explorer fails when a document library contains a required field and column default value settings for this field

I believe these are bugs with the product and both have been raised with Microsoft support so hopefully they are fixed in future updates. In the meantime here are the details and some possible workarounds in case you run into the same issues.

Update 17/03/2011 – Microsoft support has accepted these as defects and is doing an impact analysis to identify if/when they will be fixed. I’ll update this again if I have any more information.

Saving files from Office 2007 fails when a document library has major versioning enabled and contains a required field

Situation

You create a document library in SharePoint 2010 and set the versioning settings to ‘Create major versions’. You then add a column to the document library and set this to required with no default value (I’ve tested text, date and choice columns and all seem to cause this problem). When you try to save a file directly from Office 2007 applications such as Word, Excel or PowerPoint using Windows 7 or Server 2008 you are prompted to enter the required metadata. When you enter the required metadata and try to save you receive one of the following error messages and the document is not saved:

Microsoft Office Word: Word did not save the document. <filename>

sp2010-word-error-required-major-versioning2

Microsoft Office Word: There has been a network or file permission error. The network connection may be lost. <filename>

sp2010-word-error-required-major-versioning

Microsoft Office Excel: Document not saved.

sp2010-excel-error-required-major-versioning

Microsoft Office PowerPoint – There was an error accessing <filename>

sp2010-powerpoint-error-required-major-versioning

Alternative solutions

Depending on how users are interacting with the system you might be able to use one of the following alternative configurations while this issue is outstanding.

  • Enable major and minor versions or disable versioning – only the major versioning seems to be affected so depending on how you are using the system you might be able to get away with one of the other settings.
  • Upgrade to Office 2010 – this issue alone might not be reason to upgrade but Office 2010 doesn’t seem to suffer this problem so might be an option in some cases.
  • Set a default value for the column at the document library level – again depending on requirements this might be feasible and when a default is set the file is uploaded successfully.
  • Use the web user interface or Windows Explorer view to upload documents

Note I have not been able to reproduce this issue on Windows XP, only Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 clients have produced this behaviour in my tests.

Copying files using Windows Explorer fails when a document library with major versioning enabled contains a required field and column default value settings for this field

Situation

You create a document library in SharePoint 2010 and set the versioning settings to ‘Create major versions’. You then add a column to the document library and set this to required with no default value (again I’ve tested text, choice and managed metadata columns and all seem to cause this to fail). You add a column default value for this column for either the root folder or a sub folder. When you copy a file into the document library using Windows Explorer you receive one of the following error messages:

Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008

Folder Access Denied: You need permission to perform this action. You require permission from the computer’s administrator to make changes to this folder.

sp2010-major-version-column-default-folder-access-denied-win7

Copy File – An unexpected error is keeping you from copying the file. If you continue to receive this error, you can use the error code to search for help with this problem. Error 0x80070057: The parameter is incorrect.

sp2010-major-version-column-default-win7-error

Additionally the file is not copied to the document library.

Windows XP

Windows – Delayed Write Failed – Windows was unable to save all the data for the file <filename>. The data has been lost. This error may be caused by a failure of your computer hardware or network connection. Please try to save the file els

sp2010-major-version-column-default-folder-access-denied-xp

Additionally a blank file is copied to the document library and checked out. The file contents are not saved.

Alternative solutions

Depending on how users are interacting with the system you might be able to use one of the following alternative configurations while this issue is outstanding.

  • Set a default value for the column at the document library level (i.e. changing the properties of the column). If you are setting defaults on the root folder using the column default value settings this is a good workaround. If you don’t have a library default and only have defaults on sub folders, however, this might not be what you are after.
  • Enable major and minor versions or disable versioning – again only the major versioning seems to be affected so depending on how you are using the system you might be able to get away with one of the other settings.
  • Use the web user interface or Windows Explorer view to upload documents – in my tests uploading documents through the SharePoint web UI either individually or through the ‘upload multiple document’ menu option worked fine.

If I hear back from Microsoft support I’ll let you know and hopefully these are fixed in the near future. If anyone has noticed similar problems or has any other alternatives or fixes please let me know in the comments below.

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Written by Ari Bakker

March 14th, 2011 at 1:07 pm

Posted in 2010,ECM,Errors

Tagged with , , ,

8 Responses to 'Issues with SharePoint 2010 major versioning'

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  1. Hi Ari,

    I got the same problem and I search for forever. Then I found your article about this problem.

    After test and test I believe that it is bug but it is not.

    I got another problem about excel and access services. During investigation and research I figure the problem then I also retest this bug. The solution seems to fix this bug as well.

    Solution:
    IIS > Web site > Authentication
    – disabled ASP.NET Impersonation
    Restart Web Site.

    I got both excel/access service and major version bug fixed at the same time.

    Lawrence

    Lawrence

    13 Jun 11 at 11:07 pm

  2. We have just upgraded to 2010 and our users are beginning to experience the issues with Powerpoint. I can see how this would be a reason to not upgrade to 2010. Our users are not able to change documents in their libraries because of this!

    Rich

    5 Aug 11 at 5:00 pm

  3. I should note that the ability to save powerPoint via Explorer mode also fails. All of our users (US Army) are on Office 2007. Adding Amjor and Minor versioning didn’t help. But adding versionsing did result in a new error message that came up when trying to check in the file from the document library. After clicking ok on the Check In modal window this error message displays:

    “This document was checked out to your local drafts folder but the local copy could not be checked in to the site. Close any application that is editing the document and try to check in again, or discard the checkout.”

    I checked Task Manager and powerpoint wasn’t still running so no handles were open. I wasn’t able to save changes or checkin the document. Fored to discard checkout which also discards any changes. I even closed the browser and came back to the library later to try a checkin but had to discard my checkout anyway.

    Anyone depending on this functionality should probably wait until there is a fix before upgrading.

    Rich

    5 Aug 11 at 5:14 pm

  4. @Rich yes this can be very frustrating. In the end one of our clients upgraded to Office 2010 to avoid this and other issues they were having with the SharePoint 2010 and Office 2007 integration. If that is an option it certainly makes things easier.

    Ari Bakker

    5 Aug 11 at 5:15 pm

  5. Unfortunately my customer is the US Army and they have no intention of upgrading to Office 2010. Hopefully Microsoft will fix this. I’m finding some other users with this issue on msdn forums but so far no resolutions. Do you know if Microsoft has progressed with their analysis of this issue? Do you know where these types of issues can be reported to them?

    Rich

    5 Aug 11 at 5:29 pm

  6. If you work for a Microsoft Partner you may be able raise a support case via the partner portal at https://partner.microsoft.com/US/supportsecurity/subreakfixsupport – depending on your customers agreement with MS they may also be able to raise cases (and given the profile of your customer they are likely to make this a priority to fix). I’ll also check where they are with the case we raised and post an update here this week if I hear back.

    Ari Bakker

    5 Aug 11 at 5:54 pm

  7. Thanks Ari. We are a partner so I’ll see if I can submit that. It errored out the first time I tried to access it…lol. Just one of those days I guess 🙂

    Rich

    5 Aug 11 at 10:46 pm

  8. We’re having the same problem now. It’s only just started happening on our SharePoint 2010/Office 2007 enviroment after been working for nearly 1 year now.

    Did Microsoft ever come back to you with a resolution to this problem?

    Kind Regards
    Mike

    Mike

    24 Nov 11 at 10:50 am

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