SharePoint Documents are all checked out

I wanted to write a PowerShell script to check all the documents back in that had been checked out.  Turns out that is not as straight forward as I had hoped.

First search came up with this: Office Discarding Check Out Using PowerShell

Then when I tried to run the command (from the server console, because it doesn’t appear that you can just install the SP PowerShell Module on your desktop), I received the error below:

Get-SPWeb : Cannot access the local farm. Verify that the local farm is properly configured, currently available, and that you have the appropriate permissions to access the database before trying again.

That let me to this site: http://www.sharepointassist.com/2010/01/29/the-local-farm-is-not-accessible-cmdlets-with-featuredependencyid-are-not-registered/comment-page-1/#comment-1566

and this answer:

run sharepoint management shell with the service account
$db = Get-SPDatabase | Where {$_.Name -eq “SharePoint_ConfigDB”}
Add-SPShellAdmin “domain\user_to_add” -database $db

So I looked figured out how to accomplish that and moved on to writing the script for checking in files.  I ran out of time to work on this.  It will accomplish the task, but it isn’t as clean and efficient as I would like.

# Put your site root here
$TargetSite = "https://your.site.name/blah/blah/blah"
# The root folder that you want to start with
$TargetLibrary = "Shared Documents"

 

function LookForWorkFiles ($workFolder){
    Write-Host $workFolder
    # Get the SubFolder and work through it
    $wf = $Site.GetFolder($workFolder)
    # Get the files
    $FilesToProcess = $wf.Files
   
    Write-Host "How many files you ask?"
    Write-Host $FilesToProcess.Count
    If ($FilesToProcess.Count -le 0) {
        # If there aren’t any files, move on to the SubFolders
        Write-Host "No Files in $workFolder, checking for subfolders"
        }
    Else
        {
        # Check in all the files -NOTE this will cause an error for any
        # file that isn’t checked out. 
        foreach ($_ in $FilesToProcess) {
            Write-Host $_.Name
            $_.UndoCheckOut()
            $_.Update()
            }
        }
    Write-Host "Looking for Subfolders"
    Write-Host $wf.SubFolders
    foreach ($_ in $wf.SubFolders){
        Write-Host "SubFolders?"
        $Site.GetFolder($_)
        LookForWorkFiles $_
        }
    }
   
   
Write-Host "Beginning Script"
Write-Host $TargetSite
Write-Host $TargetLibrary

#Connect to the site
$Site = Get-SPWeb $TargetSite
#Get the Document Folder
$Folder = $Site.GetFolder($TargetLibrary)

foreach ($SPF in $Folder.SubFolders ){
    If ($SPF.Name -eq "Forms"){
        #the forms directory is for SharePoint, not for file management
        Write-Host "Skipping the Forms Directory"
        }
    Else
        {
        Write-Host $SPF.Name
        LookForWorkFiles $SPF
        }
    }

With this script, it is easier to use file management tools to move the files out of SharePoint.