Document Properties not sync'ing with SharePoint

Question

Upgraded from SharePoint 2007 to 2010. We then changed a column from Choice to Text.

For existing documents metadata settings in PID not syncing with library metadata so as far as word etc was concened the column was still text in those document libraries.

We've found we  can fix this manually by:

• Opening the document
• Do an Inspect and Clear.
• Saving the document (at this point if you open the document again it has no PID that links with the server).
• Selecting Edit Properties in SharePoint and clicking Ok without making any changes.

It's as if the document has become 'detached' from the library as far as the property settings are concerned.

Updating the documents manually is not an answer as there are over hundred thousand, many of which have check-in/out and publishing workflows attached.

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Jos Auker-Woor, Technical Director, Information Leadership Ltd

Answer 1

Hello,

I could not reproduce this issue. Are there any errors in the ULS log? Normally, the ULS log is in:

C:\program files\common files\microsoft shared\web server extensions\14\logs

Best Regards,

Sally Tang

Answer 2

You may want to make sure you have SP1 installed on your SharePoint 2010 Farm. There have been fixes related to office files, however,they were specifically for Office 2003.

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Answer 3

I'd already checked the logs and not seen anything obvious though I will keep monitoring.

Both Service Pack 1 and Dec 2011 CU have been applied to all the servers in the farm, just checked the upgrade logs and all ok.

Funny you mention Office 2003 Steve as I've only seen the problem with Office 2003 documents.  I've been told 2007/2010 documents that were there when the sites were upgraded are also affected but I've not seen it myself.  The customer uses Office 2010.  I did try opening one of the 2003 documents and doing save as docx but it made no difference.  New documents added since the upgrade have not been affected.

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Jos Auker-Woor, Technical Director, Information Leadership Ltd

Answer 4

Hello,

You can try to repair the document template. Go to library settings, find the document content type, go to Advanced settings, find the document template and click edit the template to open the template, do an Inspect and Clear.

Best Regards,

Sally Tang

Answer 5

Thanks Sally, I did try that but no luck.  I also created a new content type with a word 2003 template, changed the content type and tried that but made no difference.  There seems to be two problems that between them are causing the issue:

Firstly if I look at the properties of the document in Office then the Content Type Name and ID properties are wrong - so that explains why using the inspect/clear partly solves the problem with a particular document.  I've found that changing the content type back and forth in sharePoint also fixes that part of the problem.  The content type has never existed in 2010 so I can only assume this content type was deleted on the 2007 system at some point and was then removed.

The second issue is with the hidden columns I mentioned - I've now unhidden them in one library and even though they have been changed from choice to text the DIP seems to know that they were a choice column and so will only allow you to have values that were valid choices.  The columns are displayed as single line text fields in the DIP but if you enter an 'invalid' entry then a red border is displayed.  It works fine in Edit Properties in SharePoint.  I'm going to try changing the columns back to Choice - allow fill-in values and see what effect that has and will report back.

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Jos Auker-Woor, Technical Director, Information Leadership Ltd

Answer 6

Have sorted this by:

• Changing the column to a choice field that allows fill-in values.
• Changing the column back to a single line text field.

It appears that if you change a column from choice to text the DIP still 'knows' the original choices and will only enter a valid choice - By selecting allowing fill-in choices before changing it to text you allow any value so it works properly.  I can only assume this is some sort of bug in SharePoint but at least we now have a fix.

Sally and Steve thanks for your help with this.

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Jos Auker-Woor, Technical Director, Information Leadership Ltd