Write multiple people in multi-value person field using PowerShell (CSOM)

Question

I have a CSV file which contains semicolon-separated Values to a certain field:

Reviewer
domain\userOne;domain\userTWO

In PowerShell (CSOM - executed on my local computer) I am grabbing this data and write it to a list item in SharePoint. The relevant part of the script is:

$Reviewer = $_.Reviewer
$ReviewerTEST = $Reviewer.Split(";")

## Define empty array
$lookupValueCollection = @()

ForEach($ReviewerSolo in $ReviewerTEST){
    Write-Host "$ReviewerSolo"
    $SPUser = $Context.Web.EnsureUser($ReviewerSolo)
    $Context.Load($SPUser)
    $Context.ExecuteQuery()

    If ($SPUser -ne $Null)
    {
        $SPUserValue = New-Object Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.FieldUserValue
        $SPUserValue.LookupId = $SPUser.id
        ##Write-Host "$SPUser.id"
        $lookupValueCollection += $SPUserValue
        Write-Host "$lookupValueCollection"
    }
}

If ($lookupValueCollection.length -gt 0)
{
    $userValueCollection = [Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.FieldUserValue[]]$lookupValueCollection
    $item["Reviewer"] = $userValueCollection
    $item.Update()
    $Context.ExecuteQuery()
}

I have experienced, that only the first person (domain\userOne) is written into the multi-value person field. After adding a third user to the CSV-File I have experienced, that the first and third person is written to the metadata of the item. It generally seems that only every second person is added, so: first, third, fifth, seventh, and so on. I hope someone of you out there can help me :)

---

Update: 03.12.2019:

$userValueCollection for sure contains both users, because when I use:

$item["Reviewer"] = $userValueCollection[0]

then domain\userOne is written into the SharePoint-field - and when I use:

$item["Reviewer"] = $userValueCollection[1]

then domain\userTwo is written into the SharePoint-field.

It seems that SharePoint can only handle every 2nd person written to the field.

The field is in a document library.

Answer 1

Try something like given below (not an exact code like you want. But you can get the idea from it how you can store the values in array and set it):

#User Account to set
$UserAccounts="Crescent\Salaudeen; Crescent\Ravi"
$UserAccountsColl = $UserAccounts -split ';'

$UserCollection = new-object Microsoft.SharePoint.SPFieldUserValueCollection
foreach($UserAccount in $UserAccountsColl)
{
    #Get the User
    $User=$web.EnsureUser($UserAccount)

    #Add to collection
    $UserFieldValue = new-object Microsoft.SharePoint.SPFieldUserValue($Web, $User.ID, $User.LoginName)
    $UserCollection.Add($UserFieldValue)
}

#update the Multiple value Person or Group field
$ListItem[$FieldName] = $UserCollection
$ListItem.Update()

Reference:

Get-Set Person or Group (People Picker) Field Value using PowerShell in SharePoint.

Answer 2

Your all code seems fine but you have not added "ExecuteQuery" after updating the field value and that's why it's not working!

Try to change your last if statement with below:

If ($lookupValueCollection.length -gt 0)
{
    $userValueCollection = [Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.FieldUserValue[]]$lookupValueCollection
    $item["Reviewer"] = $userValueCollection
    $item.Update()
    $Context.ExecuteQuery()
}

Hope this will help you.

Answer 3

A way around this (until this BUG is fixed) is to actually add duplicates in the array that you use to update the field, like this:

ForEach($ReviewerSolo in $ReviewerTEST){
Write-Host "$ReviewerSolo"
$SPUser = $Context.Web.EnsureUser($ReviewerSolo)
$Context.Load($SPUser)
$Context.ExecuteQuery()

If ($SPUser -ne $Null)
{
    $SPUserValue = New-Object Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.FieldUserValue
    $SPUserValue.LookupId = $SPUser.id
    $lookupValueCollection += $SPUserValue

    ## Duplicate item

    $SPUserValue = New-Object Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.FieldUserValue
    $SPUserValue.LookupId = $SPUser.id
    $lookupValueCollection += $SPUserValue

    Write-Host "$lookupValueCollection"
}

(its incredibly annoying that the behaviour is not consistent)