Set multi user column with PowerShell used to work in 2010 but no longer works in 2013

Question

In SharePoint 2010 I used PowerShell to set the value of multi user people columns and it worked really well.  I attempt to use the same PowerShell to set the same column type in SharePoint 2013 and it fails.
here is the PowerShell that I use in 2010:
$web = Get-SPWeb "http://intranet"
$list = $web.lists["TestList"]
$item = $list.items.add()
$item["Title"] = "Test multi user column"
$users = @("Domain\user1", "Domain\user2")
$userList = new-object Microsoft.SharePoint.SPFieldUserValueCollection
foreach($user in $users)
$spUser = $web.EnsureUser($user)
$userValue = new-object Microsoft.SharePoint.SPFieldUserValue($web, $spUser.ID, $spUser.Name)
$userList.Add($userValue)
$item["MultiUserColumn"] = $userList
$item.update()
I have used this on three SharePoint 2013 farms with differing results.  On two of them I receive an error when running $item.update(): Exception calling "Update" with "0" argument(s): "Invalid look-up value.  A look-up
field contains invalid data. Please check the value and try again."
If I take one of the users out of the $users list then it works fine, but it will not allow multiple users to be set with PowerShell.  I can use the GUI to add more than one user but not PowerShell.
Does anyone know if these methods have changed in 2013? I haven't been able to find anyone else with this issue.
mmm... coffee...

Answer 1

Not sure but maybe something to do with casting. Below is the code snippet from one of the blogs. Try modifying your script like below and see if still you get the error
[Microsoft.SharePoint.SPFieldUserValueCollection]$lotsofpeople = New-Object Microsoft.SharePoint.SPFieldUserValueCollection
$user1 = $w.EnsureUser("domain\user1");
$user1Value = New-Object Microsoft.SharePoint.SPFieldUserValue($w, $user1.Id, $user1.LoginName)
$user2 = $w.EnsureUser("domain\user2");
$user2Value = New-Object Microsoft.SharePoint.SPFieldUserValue($w, $user2.Id, $user2.LoginName);
$lotsofpeople.Add($user1Value);
$lotsofpeople.Add($user2Value);
$i["lotsofpeoplefield"] = $lotsofpeople;
$i.Update();
#-or-
$l.Fields["lotsofpeoplefield"].ParseAndSetValue($i,$lotsofpeople);
$i.Update();
Reference to the link
http://social.technet.microsoft.com/wiki/contents/articles/20831.sharepoint-a-complete-guide-to-getting-and-setting-fields-using-powershell.aspx
Geetanjali Arora | My blogs |