Content Type Feature Activation nativehr 0x80070055

Question

After building a solution and feature to deploy a set of content types I was able to successfully activate the feature and use the content types. However after making some changes and redeploying and reactivating the feature I get the following error.

<nativehr>0x80070055</nativehr><nativestack></nativestack> 

Which seems to mean A duplicate name was found creating content type or as it appears without custom errors off The local device name is already in use. Has anyone been able to resolve issue before?

Stack Trace: 

[COMException (0x80070055): <nativehr>0x80070055</nativehr><nativestack></nativestack>]
   Microsoft.SharePoint.Library.SPRequestInternalClass.ThrowError(Int32 dwErr) +0
   Microsoft.SharePoint.Library.SPRequest.ThrowError(Int32 dwErr) +117

[SPException]
   Microsoft.SharePoint.Administration.SPElementDefinitionCollection.ProvisionFieldsAndContentTypes(SPFeaturePropertyCollection props, SPSite site, SPWeb web, Boolean fForce) +23883210
   Microsoft.SharePoint.Administration.SPElementDefinitionCollection.ProvisionElements(SPFeaturePropertyCollection props, SPWebApplication webapp, SPSite site, SPWeb web, Boolean fForce) +138
   Microsoft.SharePoint.SPFeature.Activate(SPSite siteParent, SPWeb webParent, SPFeaturePropertyCollection props, Boolean fForce) +25696175
   Microsoft.SharePoint.SPFeatureCollection.AddInternal(SPFeatureDefinition featdef, Version version, SPFeaturePropertyCollection properties, Boolean force, Boolean fMarkOnly) +27799215
   Microsoft.SharePoint.SPFeatureCollection.AddInternalWithName(Guid featureId, String featureName, Version version, SPFeaturePropertyCollection properties, Boolean force, Boolean fMarkOnly, SPFeatureDefinitionScope featdefScope) +150
   Microsoft.SharePoint.SPFeatureCollection.Add(Guid featureId, Boolean force, SPFeatureDefinitionScope featdefScope) +83
   Microsoft.SharePoint.WebControls.FeatureActivator.ActivateFeature(Guid featid, SPFeatureDefinitionScope featdefScope) +699
   Microsoft.SharePoint.WebControls.FeatureActivatorItem.BtnActivateFeature_Click(Object objSender, EventArgs evtargs) +140
   System.Web.UI.WebControls.Button.OnClick(EventArgs e) +115
   System.Web.UI.WebControls.Button.RaisePostBackEvent(String eventArgument) +140
   System.Web.UI.Page.RaisePostBackEvent(IPostBackEventHandler sourceControl, String eventArgument) +29
   System.Web.UI.Page.ProcessRequestMain(Boolean includeStagesBeforeAsyncPoint, Boolean includeStagesAfterAsyncPoint) +2981

Answer 1

The message looks like SharePoint has detected a duplicate Guid. Change the Guid and try again. I've seen this behavior in a recent project.

Answer 2

Have you associated any lists with the your custom Content Types? If yes, you need to disassociate those lists from the content types and then delete those lists before re-deploying your solution. You can user SharePoint Designer to do this.

Answer 3

This article helped me finding a solution for my case. While creating new sites I kept receiving these errors after each other without any detailed information:

The element of type 'ContentType' for feature '<FEATURE-NAME>' (id: <FEATURE-ID>) threw an exception during activation:


Feature Activation: Threw an exception, attempting to roll back.  Feature '<FEATURE-NAME>' (ID: '<FEATURE-ID>').  
Exception: Microsoft.SharePoint.SPException ---> System.Runtime.InteropServices.COMException: <nativehr>0x80070055</nativehr><nativestack></nativestack>

After all I found out that this content type was published by the Content Type Hub. It was the same content type, but I updated the solution so I think there was a mismatch between the content type on my Content Type Hub site collection and the content type on my new created sites.

After all I unpublished the Content Type and all was working fine. When you really need the content type to be published by the content type hub, you should try to deactivate and active the feature containing your content type, and then publish your content type again.

Answer 4

I know it is late but I found some information about the same issue i was facing similar to the thread so thought it is worth to share.

Microsoft.SharePoint.SPException: The local device name is already in use. (Exception from HRESULT: 0x80070055)

In the content database, SharePoint maintains a list of content types in the table dbo.ContentTypes. There is a column named NextChildByte that is a counter used to form the ContentTypeId when creating child content types. Under certain situations (such as creating a new child content type from a feature), it is possible to create a content type that already uses the next sequence number from its parent. Once this occurs, this error will take place whenever you try to create a new child of that parent. The solution: Find the row in the dbo.ContentTypes table that matches your SiteId, ContentTypeId, and Scope, then edit the NextChildByte to use a higher number.