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SharePoint Online: How to Update Document Metadata using PowerShell?

February 2, 2022 Salaudeen Rajack 1 Comment bulk edit metadata sharepoint online, sharepoint online document metadata, sharepoint online document properties, sharepoint online powershell update metadata

Requirement: Update Metadata of a File in SharePoint Online using PowerShell

Update Document Metadata in SharePoint Online using PowerShell

How to bulk edit metadata in SharePoint Online?

If you want to change properties of multiple documents in a SharePoint Online document library at once, you can use the details pane in Modern experience to bulk edit file metadata.

Follow these steps to bulk update document properties:

Browse to your SharePoint Online document library.
Select the documents from the document library.
Click on the little “i” button to open details pane.
Now, You can change the properties of the selected documents in bulk.
Click Save to apply the changes.

SharePoint Online: PowerShell to Update Metadata of a File

Let me show you the PowerShell to update a file’s metadata in SharePoint Online. This can be helpful if you need to make updates to a large number of files at once or if you want to automate the process.

#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"
   
#Set Variables
$SiteURL= "https://crescent.sharepoint.com/sites/Marketing"
$FileRelativeURL="/sites/Marketing/Shared Documents/Release Notes.dotx"
 
#Setup Credentials to connect
$Cred = Get-Credential
 
Try {
    #Setup the context
    $Ctx = New-Object Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.ClientContext($SiteURL)
    $Ctx.Credentials = New-Object Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.SharePointOnlineCredentials($Cred.UserName,$Cred.Password)
 
    #Get the File
    $File = $Ctx.Web.GetFileByServerRelativeUrl($FileRelativeURL)
    $Ctx.Load($File)
    $Ctx.ExecuteQuery()

    #Set metadata of the File
    $ListItem = $File.ListItemAllFields
    $ListItem["ReviewTimestamp"] = [System.DateTime]::Now  
    $ListItem.Update()  
    $Ctx.ExecuteQuery()    
 
    write-host -f Green "Document Metadata Updated Successfully!"
}
Catch {
    write-host -f Red "Error: " $_.Exception.Message
}

PowerShell to Set Metadata Value for All Files in a SharePoint Online Document Library

How about updating properties for all files in a document library using PowerShell?

#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"
   
#Set Variables
$SiteURL= "https://crescent.sharepoint.com/sites/Marketing"
$ListName="Documents"
 
#Setup Credentials to connect
$Cred = Get-Credential
 
Try {
    #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 Items from the List
    $List = $Ctx.web.Lists.GetByTitle($ListName)
    $ListItems = $List.GetItems([Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.CamlQuery]::CreateAllItemsQuery()) 
    $Ctx.Load($ListItems)
    $Ctx.ExecuteQuery()       
 
    #Loop through each item 
    ForEach($ListItem in $ListItems)
    {
        #Set metadata of the List Item
        $ListItem["ReviewTimestamp"] = [System.DateTime]::Now
        $ListItem.Update()
        write-host -f Green "Document Metadata Updated Successfully for:" $ListItem["FileLeafRef"]        
    }
    $Ctx.ExecuteQuery()
}
Catch {
    write-host -f Red "Error: " $_.Exception.Message
}

PnP PowerShell to Set Metadata of a File

Here is how you can upload a file to the SharePoint Online document library and set its metadata using PnP PowerShell:

#Variables
$SiteURL = "https://crescent.sharepoint.com/sites/branding"
$FilesPath = "C:\Temp\Technical Design.docx"
$SiteRelativePath = "/documents"
 
#Connect to PnP Online
Connect-PnPOnline -Url $SiteURL -Interactive
 
#Get the File from the local path
$File = Get-ChildItem -Path $FilesPath
 
#Get Created on, Last Modified Properties of the file
$Created = [DateTime]$File.CreationTime 
$Modified = [DateTime]$File.LastWriteTime

#Upload the file to SharePoint Online folder - and Set Metadata
Add-PnPFile -Path $File.FullName -Folder $SiteRelativePath -Values @{"Title" = $($File.Name);"Created"=$Created;"Modified"=$Modified}

Similarly, to set metadata of an existing file, use:

#Parameters
$SiteURL = "https://crescent.sharepoint.com/sites/Marketing"
$ListName = "Branding"
$SiteRelativeURL = "/Branding/Technical Design.docx"
$CreatedBy= "[email protected]"
$Title = "New Design Document V2.docx"

#Connect to PnP Online
Connect-PnPOnline -Url $SiteURL -Interactive
 
#Get the File from SharePoint
$File = Get-PnPFile -Url $SiteRelativeURL -AsListItem
 
#Update document properties
Set-PnPListItem -List $ListName -Identity $File.Id -Values @{"Title" = $Title; "Author" = $CreatedBy}

If you want to bulk edit document properties from a CSV file, refer: SharePoint Online: Bulk Update Metadata from a CSV File using PowerShell

Salaudeen Rajack

Salaudeen Rajack - SharePoint Expert with Two decades of SharePoint Experience. Love to Share my knowledge and experience with the SharePoint community, through real-time articles!

One thought on “SharePoint Online: How to Update Document Metadata using PowerShell?”

Joseph Jojo John
February 1, 2021 at 12:07 PM
Permalink

How to update metadata of a folder in a document library using pnp PowerShell?
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