File version removal on sub-folder vs full site

[IsaacM72]

Good afternoon.
I have used the RemoveFileVersion solution on a numer of complete "Documents" folders but not on a sub-folder or single file.
Assuming I do not have my filter correct as I get the following:
Error: When using Server relative path for filtering the items, you need to add the List name and URL of a single site.
If the site is "https://company.sharepoint.com/sites/ComapanyITBI" and the sub-folder is "Documents/BudgetingFC/2026/SAL" my assumption was that it would scan only that folder. I did not set any other options under the File Filter section as I wanted it to check all the files. There are not lists in this location, only files.

What am I missing here? Attached the solution log file

[IsaacM72]

RemoveFileVersionAuto_260215153955_Logs.txt

[Barbarur]

Hi @IsaacM72 ,

I see 2 issues on the way to use the filter.

1. If you want to target a specific subfolders from the library "Documents", at the List filter you must select "Single library or list". That's the reason of the error you are getting.

2. When you target a subfolder, you need to add the Path. Be careful that some libraries path name is not the same as their title. For the library "Documents" the path is "/Shared Documents/". This is not unique of this library, it might happen when you rename a custom library, the title change, but the path is fix forever.

[IsaacM72]

Thank you
I'm beginning to understand the logic. I left Title out. In this scenario Title is "Documents", but under File Filter I needed to specify '/Shared documents/ etc.
The solution ran and gave me the report on the specific folder. This brings me to another two questions.

Question 1
I specified to keep 10 versions in this test. I know a particular file has 119 versions and it is reported correctly as 119, but DeletedVersionsCount shows as 0. I am only running this in Report mode and not Action Mode, but I assume it should show what it would delete.
In the section: "Keep few versions" I entered 10 but left the "Keep versions created after (UTC)" as default. I assume version count takes precedence?

Question 2
Three of the files that I really need this to work on are xlsx format, as are most in this folder. They all report an error.
"Error: Error processing item.
I have attached the section from the log file where this happens.

logextract.txt

[TheRealStriff]

I can answer your question to 1.
As I use this feature a lot.
It will honour whatever is the least restrictive, if you say to keep 10 versions it checks the date and if any version fall after the date, these won't be deleted.

If wanting to delete just based on version count, set the date to the future or today's current date.

[Barbarur]

@IsaacM72 ,

For your second question, please go to the Storage Metrics and check the size.
I found SharePoint bringing incorrect total values which makes the solutions to crash.
Let's see how SharePoint shows the values from the storage metrics.

[IsaacM72]

Good evening,
Thank you for the patience. It has been a bit rough here.

On the storage metrics, it does indeed show more or less correct.
The xlsx file has versions from 1503 up to 2050 with the file growing from 67MB to 78MB. In Storage metrics it shows this particular file taking 36GB.
@TheRealStriff Changing the date to today's date did improve the solution a little and marked some files for version cleanup. Thank you! I will test on some more folders in Report mode.
@Barbarur Runing the solution with the changes mentioned by @TheRealStriff it marked some files for cleanup but this particular xlsx file still comes up with this error.

Unable to cast object of type 'System.String' to type 'Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.FieldLookupValue'.

[IsaacM72]

Let me update again.
I ran the solution in Report Mode initially, but since the solution looked ok for the majority of other files I ran it in Action Mode.
Interestingly it did trim the versions down from the problematic file, even though it still reported the error on that file.
I'll call it a false positive.

[Barbarur]

Hi @IsaacM72 ,

Which error you got for the file that got actually trimmed?

[IsaacM72]

The error is like this:
I originally assumed it was related to xlsx files but I see in cleanup of other sites that it can be pptx also.

Unable to cast object of type 'System.String' to type 'Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.FieldLookupValue'.

I will test on some other sites and folders to see if it trims all files regardless of the error above.

[Barbarur]

Hi @IsaacM72 ,

Did you check on the storage metrics the size of the file?

The error comes when adding the file information on the report. So the actions occurs correctly. But because SharePoint provides de information wrongly, it fails to record it on the report.

I saw SharePoint having files with negative value, which doesn't make sense. But that's an error from SharePoint side. You can double check by reviewing the storage metrics.