Retrieve SharePoint Online items with history

Question

I have seen some scripts out there for on-prem servers that will export list items with history to a CSV file, but I can't seem to modify them to work with SharePoint Online.

Does anyone have a script that will do that? The reason for the history is because there is a column for multi-text that appends the data and it is stored in the history. So if there is a better way, I am open to it.

Thanks

Answer 1

Hi @Smith, Mark ,
You can use the following PowerShell Script to export list items with history to a CSV file.

[Net.ServicePointManager]::SecurityProtocol = [Net.SecurityProtocolType]::Tls12  
#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 Export-VersionHistory()  
{  
  param  
    (  
        [Parameter(Mandatory=$true)] [string] $SiteURL,  
        [Parameter(Mandatory=$true)] [string] $ListName,  
        [Parameter(Mandatory=$true)] [string] $CSVFile  
    )  
    Try {  
  
        #Delete the Output report file if exists  
        if (Test-Path $CSVFile) { Remove-Item $CSVFile }  
  
        #Get Credentials to connect  
        $Cred= Get-Credential  
        $Credentials = New-Object Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.SharePointOnlineCredentials($Cred.Username, $Cred.Password)  
  
        #Setup the context  
        $Ctx = New-Object Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.ClientContext($SiteURL)  
        $Ctx.Credentials = $Credentials  
           
        #Get the List  
        $List = $Ctx.Web.Lists.GetByTitle($ListName)  
        $Ctx.Load($List)  
        $Ctx.ExecuteQuery()  
           
        #Get all items  
        $Query = [Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.CamlQuery]::CreateAllItemsQuery()  
        $ListItems = $List.GetItems($Query)  
        $Ctx.Load($ListItems)  
        $Ctx.ExecuteQuery()  
  
        #Array to hold result  
        $VersionHistoryData = @()  
  
        #Iterate throgh each item  
        Foreach ($Item in $ListItems)  
        {  
            write-host "Processing Item:" $item.id -f Yellow  
               
            #Get all versions of the list item  
            $Versions = $Item.versions  
            $ctx.Load($Versions)  
            $Ctx.ExecuteQuery()  
  
            If($Versions.count -gt 0)  
            {  
                #Iterate each version  
                Foreach($Version in $Versions)  
                {  
                    #Get the Creator object of the version  
                    $CreatedBy =  $Version.createdby  
                    $Ctx.Load($CreatedBy)  
                    $Ctx.ExecuteQuery()  
  
                    #Send Data to object array  
                    $VersionHistoryData += New-Object PSObject -Property @{  
                    'Item ID' = $Item.ID  
                    'Title' =  $Version.FieldValues["Title"]  
                    'Version Label' = $Version.VersionLabel  
                    'Version ID' = ($Version.VersionId/512)  
                    'Created On' = (Get-Date ($Version.Created) -Format "yyyy-MM-dd/HH:mm:ss")  
                    'Created By' = $CreatedBy.Email  
                    }  
                }  
            }  
        }  
           
        #Export the data to CSV  
        $VersionHistoryData | Export-Csv $CSVFile -Append -NoTypeInformation  
  
        write-host -f Green "Version History Exported Successfully to:" $CSVFile  
     }  
    Catch {  
        write-host -f Red "Error Exporting version History to CSV!" $_.Exception.Message  
    }  
}  
  
#Set parameter values  
$SiteURL="https://tenant.sharepoint.com/sites/Amy12345"  
$ListName="test for update"  
$CSVFile="C:\Users\spadmin\Desktop\VersionHistory.csv"  
  
#Call the function to generate version History Report  
Export-VersionHistory -SiteURL $SiteURL -ListName $ListName -CSVFile $CSVFile  

Thanks,
Yanli Jiang

===========================================

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Updated on 2022.06.07

According to my research and testing, the account for the credential, the domain should be consistent with the site tenant, like this:
https://tenant.sharepoint.com/sites/sitename
amyj@tenant.onmicrosoft.com
And, the account should have at least [View Only] permission for this site.

Thanks,
Yanli Jiang

===========================================

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Answer 2

I am not sure how to get past the credentials. I am a site collection admin for this location. I am getting what looks like a windows prompt also. Normally it looks different. We are using MFA if that is affecting this.

Answer 3

I still can't get passed the credentials. I am a site collection admin for the site and a SharePoint admin for the Tenant. So am not sure what else I would need.