SharePoint Online: Fix “The collection has not been initialized. It has not been requested or the request has not been executed. It may need to be explicitly requested” Error in PowerShell
Error: The collection has not been initialized. It has not been requested or the request has not been executed. It may need to be explicitly requested.
Root Cause:
You must load the object before you are trying to retrieve its properties!
Solution:
Here is how the problem can be resolved:
#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"
#Parameters
$SiteURL = "https://Crescent.sharepoint.com"
$UserName = "[email protected]"
$Password = "Password goes here"
$SecurePassword= $Password | ConvertTo-SecureString -AsPlainText -Force
#Setup the Context
$Ctx = New-Object Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.ClientContext($SiteURL)
$Ctx.Credentials = New-Object Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.SharePointOnlineCredentials($UserName, $SecurePassword)
#Get All Fields from the List
$List = $Ctx.Web.Lists.GetByTitle("Documents")
#Load List Fields collection
$Ctx.Load($List.Fields)
$Ctx.ExecuteQuery()
ForEach($Field in $List.Fields)
{
Write-host $Field.Title
}
Please note, if you skip Line # 19 and 20, you would end up with the error The collection has not been initialized! Let’s take another example to retrieve all list names from a SharePoint Online site:
Import-Module Microsoft.Online.SharePoint.PowerShell -DisableNameChecking
#Parameters
$SiteURL = "https://crescent.sharepoint.com/sites/Projects"
#Setup Credentials to connect
$Cred = Get-Credential
#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 List names from the site
$Lists = $Ctx.web.Lists
ForEach($List in $Lists)
{
Write-host $List.Title
}
The above script fails with an error message:
The collection has not been initialized. It has not been requested or the request has not been executed. It may need to be explicitly requested.
At C:\Users\Salaudeen\Documents\PowerShell\Get-Lists.ps1:15 char:9
+ ForEach($List in $Lists)
+ ~~~~~
+ CategoryInfo : OperationStopped: (:) [], CollectionNotInitializedException
+ FullyQualifiedErrorId : Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.CollectionNotInitializedException
At C:\Users\Salaudeen\Documents\PowerShell\Get-Lists.ps1:15 char:9
+ ForEach($List in $Lists)
+ ~~~~~
+ CategoryInfo : OperationStopped: (:) [], CollectionNotInitializedException
+ FullyQualifiedErrorId : Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.CollectionNotInitializedException
Here, in this case, we should load the Lists collection first. So, to fix the issue, use:
Import-Module Microsoft.Online.SharePoint.PowerShell -DisableNameChecking
#Parameters
$SiteURL = "https://crescent.sharepoint.com/sites/Projects"
#Setup Credentials to connect
$Cred = Get-Credential
#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 List names from the site
$Lists = $Ctx.web.Lists
$Ctx.Load($Lists)
$Ctx.ExecuteQuery()
ForEach($List in $Lists)
{
Write-host $List.Title
}
So, make sure collection objects are loaded and executed before accessing them inside the loop!
Hi. I am having an issue where the $ctx.Web collection is not initialised and try as I might, I cannot find a way to intialise/load it. Any ideas?
Try loading the web object. E.g.