How to remove orphaned features

Question

I found some orphaned features under _layouts/ManageFeatures.aspx?Scope=Site but they do not show up when I list them up with powershell (get-spgetfeature -site url). They are not in 14 hive and cannot be found through the SharePoint Manager.

What can I do to remove these features?

Answer 1

I have had this problem, too. The reason why they don't show up in PowerShell is the missing Scope, those feature are orphaned, indeed. We cannot use -Site parameter. What you can is to list it in PowerShell without -Site parameter and filter out those without Scope:

Get-SPFeature | ? { $_.Scope -eq $null }

This will give you a complete list of orphaned features.

Now you have to find your feature and delete it. You cannot use Id for getting your feature, neither use Unistall-SPFeature cmdlet with Id:

Uninstall-SPFeature : Cannot find a Feature object with Path or Id: a4d208a3-b4fa-4bca-bb34-be4d30156b63 in scope Local farm. At line:1 char:1 + Uninstall-SPFeature a4d208a3-b4fa-4bca-bb34-be4d30156b63 + ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + CategoryInfo : InvalidData: (Microsoft.Share...ninstallFeature:SPCmdletUninstallFeature) [Uninstall-SPF eature], SPCmdletPipeBindException + FullyQualifiedErrorId : Microsoft.SharePoint.PowerShell.SPCmdletUninstallFeature

The workaround is to use the DisplayName to get the spfeature (actually SPFeatureDefinition) and then delete it.

$feature = Get-SPFeature | ? { $_.DisplayName -eq "My_Orphane_Feature" }
$feature.Delete()

I have tested this code and it has worked for me.

You can even use this code to clean all the orphaned features:

Get-SPFeature | ? { !$_.Scope } | % { $_.Delete() }

This line of code gets all the orphaned features and removes them.

BUT be extremely careful with this " Get-SPFeature | ? { !$.Scope } | % { $.Delete() }" as in some cases it removed the Farm Features in Central Administration which is a big issue only running the configuration wizard helped.

Answer 2

To my surprise this worked for me:

stsadm -o uninstallfeature -id <id-of-feature-missing> -force 

Found in this blog post Sharing Minds - by Anthony Butcher

Answer 3

You can try tu use

SharePoint Manager 2010 or

SharePoint Feature Administration and Clean Up Tool

Answer 4

You can try this and second Reference, this one I have refered fist time.

For this you need the add the Feature Id and then -Force is important. Without force it works sometimes but definitely works with -Force. Hope this will be helpful.

Answer 5

I used following command to remove feature from Site Collection Administration : Features interface

stsadm -o uninstallfeature -id <GUID> -force

GUID of feature (which you want to remove) can be found in View Source of page.