Change Modified Date and User in Versions

Question

We have document libraries in Sharepoint 2010 with incorrect modified dates and users (they were imported from somewhere). I thought, I could correct them with Powershell, but it does not work the way I tried and I cannot figure out what is wrong.

It is easy for list items:

$item["Editor"] = $newuser
$iten["Modified"] = $newdate
$item.update()

I thought, I could adapt this to versions. I can read the properties, but when I try to assign a new value, it throws an error:

Unable to index into an object of type Microsoft.SharePoint.SPListItemVersion.
At line:1 char:10
+ $version[ <<<< "Modified"]=$newdate
+ CategoryInfo          : InvalidOperation: (Modified:String) [], RuntimeE
xception
+ FullyQualifiedErrorId : CannotIndex

What am I doing wrong? Is there another way to change these values?

Answer 1

You cannot change item version properties as SPListItemVersion.this[string] indexer is read only. That is, whereas this code is legal:

SPListItem item = list.GetItemById(1);
item["X"] = "a";

The below code will throw error:

Property or indexer 'Microsoft.SharePoint.SPListItemVersion.this[string]' cannot be assigned to -- it is read only

SPListItem item = list.GetItemById(1);                
SPListItemVersionCollection versions = item.Versions;
foreach(SPListItemVersion version in versions)
{
    version["Modified"] = new DateTime(2014, 1, 1);
}

Moreover, properties of SPListItemVersion are read only as well, like SPListItemVersion.CreatedBy

Answer 2

Please find below a way to manipulate Versions dates via Powershell. Applies to SP2016/2019 (didn't test with an earlier version). Maybe still useful for others:

$DateValue = "2013-01-01 10:05"
$doc["Modified"] = $DateValue
$doc["Created"] =  $DateValue
$doc.UpdateOverwriteVersion()
$doc.File.Publish("test")

The latest major version is set to ~10 years ago.