Trouble with Infopath form on document library after migration

Question

I have a job for a client of fixing Infopath forms after a SharePoint migration from 2010 to 2013 In some cases, the forms have been used in quite the complex way: In a Document Library (not a form library) there is a template that is used as an edit item form. After uploading the file with the default SharePoint upload dialogue, the form would open and the user would enter information into the form, which would them define the filed values of the item in the library. This seems to have worked in 2010, but it won't work anymore after migrating to 2013. When I try to upload a file, the form attempts to open, but is then giving an error. The error says it couldn't open the form since it lacks the field "Name" of field type "File". Since that field type is not supported in the Infopath designer, it is impossible to fix this problem through conventional methods.

So I am looking for a way to circumvent this issue. I'm aware I might have to recreate the form and change the workflow, but I hope there might be a different solution.

Thank you for your help.

Answer 1

My best bet would be to open the library on SharePoint Designer. Look for the infopath template file (.XSN file extension). Download it, Right click on the file and selct DESIGN (with the latest version of infopath). Either Quick deploy or create a new library with this.

If you still get errors, make the changes you need such as replacing the old unsupported field types for the new ones. Sounds like it should be only 1 field. After that, you should be able to see your form deployed. I had a similar error on SP Online where an unbounded rich text field was giving me an issue, as soon as I change it I was able to re-deploy again. ( as you know SP online is way more restrictive than on-prem SP2013)

So yeah If that field is the one your workflow uses then, you might need to change the name of the field you just created in this workflow.