Metadata Synchronization in Document Set

Question

Hopefully this will be a short one. I did not see an answered question like this.

• I have a document set that is tied to a site content type which has a parent of Document Set. I get all of my columns from this.
• I have a document library that uses the site content type (again, a Document Set) as it's content type and nothing else.
• Inside the Document Sets are simple "Document" content types.
• I have gone to Document Set settings and selected all of these columns to be Shared columns.

When I create a new document set the metadata from that is not being applied downward to the documents in the document set.

My understanding is that this should be synchronized by a timer job in the background.

Does my Sharepoint Online environment have an issue or do I not understand how Shared columns work? I've looked at every tutorial I can find and haven't found a straight answer. Does this only work for "Default" documents in the library?

Thanks

Answer 1

If you do not have a default document and are adding one by creating new after you create the document set you will have to save the document. That will give you access to the quick parts, but not the values. Close that instance of word and reopen your document from SharePoint and you will have the Metadata and the associated values.

So to answer your question, "It only works for default documents in the document set" . . .. unless you want to do some crazy workaround, which you will have to teach your users anyways if they are going to add random things to the document set.