Deleting all document versions but the current from a SharePoint document library using PowerShell

Question

I have a SharePoint document library with a large number of documents and versions. My task is to create a PowerShell script to delete all versions but the current for each document.

When I tried to delete the versions within my iteration, I got an error saying that the "collection was modified". Fair enough, I can't change the collection I'm looping through.

So instead I added the versions to be deleted in an array to be processed later outside the loop. But that didn't work eighter, I get "Exception calling Delete with 0 argument(s): Object reference not set to an instance of an object."

I have reviewed all similar Q&As for this issue on this site, but no answer is spot on. Can anyone give a hint on what is going on here? Thanks so much for any help.

asnp *sh*
$site = new-object Microsoft.SharePoint.SPSite("http://somesite")
$web = $site.RootWeb
$list = $web.Lists["Dokument"]
cls
$versionsToDelete = @()

foreach ($listItem in $list.Items)
{
    foreach ($ver in $listItem.Versions)  
    {
        if (!$ver.IsCurrentVersion)
        {
            $versionsToDelete += $listItem.Versions.GetVersionFromLabel($ver.VersionLabel)
        }
    }
}

for($i=0;$i -lt $versionsToDelete.Count;$i++)
{
    write-host "Trying to delete" $versionsToDelete.VersionLabel[$i]
    $versionsToDelete[$i].Delete()
}

$web.Dispose()
$site.Dispose()

Answer 1

You could refer to the below code:

Add-PSSnapin Microsoft.SharePoint.PowerShell -erroraction SilentlyContinue

$SPweb = Get-SPWeb "http://sp13/sites/team"
$limit = (Get-Date).AddMonths(-6)
$SPlist = $SPweb.Lists["Doc1"]

foreach ($SPitem in $SPlist.Items)
{
    $currentVersionsCount= $SPItem.Versions.count

    for($i=$currentVersionsCount-1;$i -ge 0;$i--)
    {
        if($SPitem.Versions[$i].IsCurrentVersion){
            Write-Host "Current version"
        }
        else{ 
            if($limit -gt $SPitem.Versions[$i].Created)
            {
                $SPitem.Versions[$i].delete();
            }
        }
    }
}

OR:

###########################################################################  
#### Delete-Item-Versions-in-SharePoint using PowerShell - Report Mode ####  
###########################################################################  
if((Get-PSSnapin | Where {$_.Name -eq "Microsoft.SharePoint.PowerShell"}) -eq $null)   
{  
    Add-PSSnapin Microsoft.SharePoint.PowerShell;  
}  
  
$myWeb = "http://mysharepoint.com/sites/myweb1"  
$myList = "Fantastic Library"  
$myDate = "2014-01-01"  
$myPath = "E:\Satyajit\VersionHistoryDeleteCheckWithDateFilter.csv"  
  
$results = @()  
$storageSaved = 0  
  
$SPWeb = Get-SPWeb $myWeb  
foreach ($list in $SPWeb.Lists)  
{  
    if ($list.Title -eq $myList)  
    {  
        Write-Host "Name: " $list.Title  
        Write-Host "Type: " $list.BaseType  
        $itemColl = $list.Items  
        foreach ($item in $itemColl)  
        {             
            foreach ($ver in $item.Versions)  
            {  
                #this block for non-current versions  
                if (!$ver.IsCurrentVersion)          
                {   
                  if ((Get-Date $ver.Created) -lt (Get-Date $myDate))  
                  {                                        
                        $RowDetails = @{  
                            "Document Name" = $item.Name  
                            "Version Number" = $ver.VersionLabel  
                            "Created Date" = $ver.Created  
                            "Created By" = $ver.CreatedBy  
                            "Delete Flag" = "Can be deleted"   
                            "Date Flag" = "Match"      
"Version Size (Kb)" =  "{0:n2}"-f ($item.File.Versions.GetVersionFromLabel($ver.VersionLabel).Size/1KB)                                       
                        }  
                        $tempSize = "{0:n2}"-f ($item.File.Versions.GetVersionFromLabel($ver.VersionLabel).Size/1MB)  
                        $storageSaved = $storageSaved + $tempSize    
                        $results += New-Object PSObject -Property $RowDetails   
                   }  
                   else  
                   {  
                        $RowDetails = @{  
                            "Document Name" = $item.Name  
                            "Version Number" = $ver.VersionLabel  
                            "Created Date" = $ver.Created  
                            "Created By" = $ver.CreatedBy  
                            "Delete Flag" = "Do not Delete"   
                            "Date Flag" = "Does not Match"   
                "Version Size (Kb)" = "{0:n2}"-f ($item.File.Versions.GetVersionFromLabel($ver.VersionLabel).Size/1KB)                                          
                         }  
                         $results += New-Object PSObject -Property $RowDetails                           
                   }  
                }  
                 
                #this block for current versions  
                else  
                {  
                    if ((Get-Date $ver.Created) -lt (Get-Date $myDate))  
                    {    
                        $RowDetails = @{  
                                "Document Name" = $item.Name  
                                "Version Number" = $ver.VersionLabel  
                                "Created Date" = $ver.Created  
                                "Created By" = $ver.CreatedBy       
                                "Delete Flag" = "Do not Delete "   
                                "Date Flag" = "Match"      
                "Version Size (Kb)" = "{0:n2}"-f ($item.File.Versions.GetVersionFromLabel($ver.VersionLabel).Size/1KB)              
                            }  
                            $results += New-Object PSObject -Property $RowDetails   
                    }  
                    else  
                    {  
                        $RowDetails = @{  
                                "Document Name" = $item.Name  
                                "Version Number" = $ver.VersionLabel  
                                "Created Date" = $ver.Created  
                                "Created By" = $ver.CreatedBy     
                                "Delete Flag" = "Do not Delete"   
                                "Date Flag" = "Does not Match"    
        "Version Size (Kb)" = "{0:n2}"-f ($item.File.Versions.GetVersionFromLabel($ver.VersionLabel).Size/1KB)                                      
                            }  
                         $results += New-Object PSObject -Property $RowDetails                          
                    }  
                }  
                  
            }  
              
        }  
    }      
}  
$TotalSizeSaved = @{  
    "Document Name" = ""  
    "Version Number" = ""  
    "Created Date" = ""  
    "Created By" = ""    
    "Delete Flag" = ""  
    "Date Flag" = ""  
    "Version Size (Kb)" =  "Total Size = " + $storageSaved   
}  
$results += New-Object PSObject -Property $TotalSizeSaved  
$results | export-csv -Path $myPath -NoTypeInformation  
Write-Host "---------------------------------------------------------------"  
Write-Host $storageSaved " MB can be saved from this library"  
Write-Host "---------------------------------------------------------------" 

References:

Powershell script for deleting old versions Delete Item Versions In SharePoint Programmatically

Answer 2

If you are comfortable running PowerShell scripts then the above script will do.

If running PowerShell is outside your comfort zone then you can also use browser-based tools (e.g. here)

Paul