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We have a DocLib with versioning (only major versions), without content approval and documents are not required to be checked out before they can be edited.

Unfortunately when overwriting any document via copy / paste within mapped Windows Explorer (or "Open with Explorer") the version number does not get incremented. It only works, if existing document gets opened directly from this location.

But sometimes the users store big files (in any format) locally for editing and they want to overwrite existing version in DocLib easily via copy / paste instead of using "Upload Document" functionality of SharePoint - only there you can specify that existing files should be added as new version.

So, is it possible to configure SharePoint that version numbers get incremented in this scenario? Or does it only work with custom implementation?

There is a similar post addressing this issue, but it does not answer my questions: How to deal with versioning files that are not types recognized by sharepoint

Thanks, Roger

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  • I just tested this and it works fine for me. SP2013 Enterprise (on premise) created a new library, turned on versioning. Created a word doc, uploaded. Opened in explorer, copied to desktop, made a change, copied back to library. Version increased.
    – Aboba
    May 24, 2014 at 22:52
  • I have tried exactly the same thing (with Word doc) and for me it does not work. Even worse, any version numbers gets set back to 1.0!
    – maeni70
    May 25, 2014 at 20:51

2 Answers 2

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I can verify that when using copy tool TeraCopy for uploading document via webdav (http://codesector.com/teracopy) version number of document gets set back to initial value and version history is lost.

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Make sure you have Require documents to be checked out before they can be edited in the Versioning Settings of the library set to NO. This is the only way you'll be able to reliably use Windows Explorer to access the libraries and have it track versions.

Also make sure any checked out documents are checked in. Basically what's happening is you keep overwriting the currently checked out version so the version never increments.

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  • Hi Rob Please note what I had written in my question: "documents are not required to be checked out before they can be edited". Additionally, what you are saying contradicts the fact that higher versions always get "downgraded" to version 1.0 after upload. It looks like existing document gets deleted and replaced by new document. Also in version history you can only see version 1.0.
    – maeni70
    May 26, 2014 at 23:28
  • Right. I said "make sure" meaning double check. You also need to make sure the document you are testing is not checked out as the version will not increment if it is. Works for me every time with that scenario.
    – Rob D'Oria
    May 26, 2014 at 23:34
  • I checked checkout status before upload - document is not checked out. Strange behaviour! I will try to find any hints... Currently for me it's alright to know that behaviour in our environment is not as it should be. Your environment is SharePoint Server 2013? Cheers, Roger
    – maeni70
    May 26, 2014 at 23:41
  • I have both 2010 and 2013 environments. Same behavior in both.
    – Rob D'Oria
    May 26, 2014 at 23:43
  • I guess, I have found the problem - Teracopy! I'll verify further and answer my own question, if this copy utility is really the cause of this issue.
    – maeni70
    May 27, 2014 at 0:17

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