Applies to Event Management and Employee Training Management on SharePoint on-premisees

Error when re-activating Event Management or Employee Training Management site feature! What can I do?

Event Management and Employee Training Management were the first SharePoint add-ins we released for SharePoint 2010, later for SharePoint 2013, 2016 and finally SharePoint 2019 and SE. The apps are a great success and though the majority has moved over to Event Management or Employee Training Management on SharePoint online, there are still many customers using them in SharePoint on-premises environments.

A feature must be re-activated when it is upgraded to a newer version. If you are upgrading several SharePoint sites, you can save a lot of time by using a SharePoint power shell script to re-activate the feature. We have, however, become aware of an error which you may receive when re-activating Event Management or Employee Training Management. The error message is as follows:

Exception calling "Add" with "1" argument(s: "A list, survey, discussion board
, or document library with the specified title already exists in this Web site.
  Please choose another title."

This error occurs when lists have been renamed and you try to re-activate the feature. It can, however, be fixed easily by entering a script into the SharePoint Management Shell.

$webs = Get-SPWebApplication | Get-SPSite -Limit All | Get-SPWeb -Limit All
!----Use the following Feature ID for Event Management
$featureID = [Guid]"19b71bce-18eb-451d-a20a-4973cfe07317"
!----Use the following Feature ID for Employee Training Management
!----$featureID = [Guid]"26583aab-d708-4dc1-92f1-36843fafcb40"

ForEach($w in $webs){
    if($w.Features[$featureID])
    {
        write-host ("Web: " + $w.Url)
        try{
            $listNames = @(("Lists/Enrollments", "Enrollments"),("Lists/Topics", "Event Catalog"),("Lists/Events", "Scheduled Events"))
            $trainingLists = $w.Lists | where { $_.TemplateFeatureID -eq $featureID }
            ForEach($l in $trainingLists){
                $listName = $listNames | where { $_[0] -eq $l.RootFolder.Url }
                if($listName){
                    if($l.Title -ne $listName[1]){
                        $currentTitle = $l.Title
                        $l.Title = $listName[1]
                        $listName[1] = $currentTitle
                        $l.Update();
                        write-host ("List renamed from " + $currentTitle + " to " + $l.Title);
                    }
                }
            }
            $w.Features.Remove($featureID);
            write-host "Feature deactivated"
            $w.Features.Add($featureID);
            write-host "Feature activated"
        }
        catch [exception]
        {
            write-host ("An error occurred: " + $_.Exception.Message)
        }
        finally{
            ForEach($l in $trainingLists){
                $listName = $listNames | where { $_[0] -eq $l.RootFolder.Url }
                if($listName){
                    if($l.Title -ne $listName[1]){
                        $currentTitle = $l.Title
                        $l.Title = $listName[1]
                        $listName[1] = $currentTitle
                        $l.Update()
                        write-host ("List renamed from " + $currentTitle + " to " + $l.Title);
                    }
                }
            }
        }
    }
} 

These scripts rename any lists with changed names and then update the feature. The lists are then changed back to their original names.

I hope you found this information useful. If you have any problems or any other questions, please send an e-mail to support.