SharePoint Online: Find Content Type usage using PowerShell
Requirement: Find where a Content Type is used in SharePoint Online
You may have to find the content type usage in scenarios like,
- You are getting the “content type is still in use” error when trying to delete a content type.
- You are trying to figure out where a particular content type is being used, etc.
PowerShell to Find Content Type Usage in SharePoint Online
Unlike SharePoint On-premises, We don’t have SPContentTypeUsage class available in CSOM. So we are left with an option: Scan each and every list to get the content type usage!
#Load SharePoint CSOM Assemblies
Add-Type -Path "C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Web Server Extensions\16\ISAPI\Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.dll"
Add-Type -Path "C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Web Server Extensions\16\ISAPI\Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.Runtime.dll"
#Function to get the content type usage
Function Find-SPOContentTypeUsage([String]$SiteURL)
{
Try{
Write-host -f Yellow "Processing Site:" $SiteURL
#Setup the context
$Ctx = New-Object Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.ClientContext($SiteURL)
$Ctx.Credentials = New-Object Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.SharePointOnlineCredentials($Cred.Username, $Cred.Password)
#Get All Lists of the Web
$Ctx.Load($Ctx.Web)
$Ctx.Load($Ctx.Web.Lists)
$Ctx.Load($ctx.Web.Webs)
$Ctx.ExecuteQuery()
#Get content types of each list from the web
[email protected]()
ForEach($List in $Ctx.Web.Lists)
{
$ContentTypes = $List.ContentTypes
$Ctx.Load($ContentTypes)
$Ctx.Load($List.RootFolder)
$Ctx.ExecuteQuery()
#Get List URL
If($Ctx.Web.ServerRelativeUrl -ne "/")
{
$ListURL= $("{0}{1}" -f $Ctx.Web.Url.Replace($Ctx.Web.ServerRelativeUrl,''), $List.RootFolder.ServerRelativeUrl)
}
else
{
$ListURL= $("{0}{1}" -f $Ctx.Web.Url, $List.RootFolder.ServerRelativeUrl)
}
#Get each content type data
ForEach($CType in $ContentTypes)
{
$ContentTypeUsage = New-Object PSObject
$ContentTypeUsage | Add-Member NoteProperty SiteURL($SiteURL)
$ContentTypeUsage | Add-Member NoteProperty ListName($List.Title)
$ContentTypeUsage | Add-Member NoteProperty ListURL($ListURL)
$ContentTypeUsage | Add-Member NoteProperty ContentTypeName($CType.Name)
$ContentTypeUsages += $ContentTypeUsage
}
}
#Export the result to CSV file
$ContentTypeUsages | Export-CSV $ReportOutput -NoTypeInformation -Append
#Iterate through each subsite of the current web and call the function recursively
foreach ($Subweb in $Ctx.web.Webs)
{
#Call the function recursively to process all subsites underneaththe current web
Find-SPOContentTypeUsage($Subweb.url)
}
}
Catch {
write-host -f Red "Error Generating Content Type Usage Report!" $_.Exception.Message
}
}
#Config Parameters
$SiteURL="https://crescent.sharepoint.com"
$ReportOutput ="C:\Temp\ContentTypeUsage.csv"
#Get Credentials to connect
$Cred= Get-Credential
#Delete the Output Report, if exists
if (Test-Path $ReportOutput) { Remove-Item $ReportOutput }
#Call the function to get the content type usage
Find-SPOContentTypeUsage $SiteURL
Here is the sample output of the script.
This PowerShell script gets all content types of all lists and libraries in a SharePoint Online site collection. What if you want to find where a specific content type is used?
SharePoint Online: Find Where a Specific Content Type is used using PowerShell
Now, let’s find all documents with a content type in SharePoint Online using PowerShell. Here is how to get content type usage in SharePoint Online.
#Load SharePoint CSOM Assemblies
Add-Type -Path "C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Web Server Extensions\16\ISAPI\Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.dll"
Add-Type -Path "C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Web Server Extensions\16\ISAPI\Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.Runtime.dll"
#Function to get a particular content type usage
Function Get-SPOContentTypeUsage([String]$SiteURL, [String]$ContentTypeName)
{
Try{
Write-host -f Yellow "Processing Site:" $SiteURL
#Setup the context
$Ctx = New-Object Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.ClientContext($SiteURL)
$Ctx.Credentials = New-Object Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.SharePointOnlineCredentials($Cred.Username, $Cred.Password)
#Get All Lists of the Web
$Ctx.Load($Ctx.Web)
$Ctx.Load($Ctx.Web.Lists)
$Ctx.Load($ctx.Web.Webs)
$Ctx.ExecuteQuery()
#Get content types of each list from the web
[email protected]()
ForEach($List in $Ctx.Web.Lists)
{
$ContentTypes = $List.ContentTypes
$Ctx.Load($ContentTypes)
$Ctx.Load($List.RootFolder)
$Ctx.ExecuteQuery()
#Get List URL
If($Ctx.Web.ServerRelativeUrl -ne "/")
{
$ListURL= $("{0}{1}" -f $Ctx.Web.Url.Replace($Ctx.Web.ServerRelativeUrl,''), $List.RootFolder.ServerRelativeUrl)
}
else
{
$ListURL= $("{0}{1}" -f $Ctx.Web.Url, $List.RootFolder.ServerRelativeUrl)
}
#Get each content type data
ForEach($CType in $ContentTypes)
{
If($CType.Name -eq $ContentTypeName)
{
$ContentTypeUsage = New-Object PSObject
$ContentTypeUsage | Add-Member NoteProperty SiteURL($SiteURL)
$ContentTypeUsage | Add-Member NoteProperty ListName($List.Title)
$ContentTypeUsage | Add-Member NoteProperty ListURL($ListURL)
$ContentTypeUsage | Add-Member NoteProperty ContentTypeName($CType.Name)
$ContentTypeUsages += $ContentTypeUsage
Write-host -f Green "Found the Content Type at:" $ListURL
}
}
}
#Export the result to CSV file
$ContentTypeUsages | Export-CSV $ReportOutput -NoTypeInformation -Append
#Iterate through each subsite of the current web and call the function recursively
foreach ($Subweb in $Ctx.web.Webs)
{
#Call the function recursively to process all subsites underneaththe current web
Get-SPOContentTypeUsage $Subweb.url $ContentTypeName
}
}
Catch {
write-host -f Red "Error Generating Content Type Usage Report!" $_.Exception.Message
}
}
#Config Parameters
$SiteURL="https://crescent.sharepoint.com"
$ReportOutput ="C:\Temp\ContentTypeUsage.csv"
$ContentTypeName="Business Contacts"
#Get Credentials to connect
$Cred= Get-Credential
#Delete the Output Report, if exists
if (Test-Path $ReportOutput) { Remove-Item $ReportOutput }
#Call the function to get the content type usage
Get-SPOContentTypeUsage $SiteURL $ContentTypeName
This gets you all locations of the specific content type usage.
Please note, you can not delete a content type as long as the content type is in use on any of the SharePoint site. Also, In order to remove a content type from SharePoint site, any item that uses the particular content type must be either change its content type or completely removed even from recycle bins (1st stage & 2nd stage recycle bins).
Here is my another post to find where a content type is used in SharePoint On-premises: Find Content Type Usage in SharePoint using PowerShell
