SP.ListItem.File.Versions (FileVersionCollection) has wrong Created date/time?

Question

I'm trying to use CSOM to get info about old versions of list items. But while I can retrieve the FileVersionCollection (File.Versions) fine, the only info it gives me for each version is the ID/Label/Created/CreatedBy/Url. It doesn't give me any other field
values.
I know I can get this info using lists.asmx/GetVersionCollection, but that API only returns the specified field value, Modified and ModifiedBy for each version.
That would be OK if the Modified timestamp matched the Created timestamp returned in the FileVersionCollection, but it doesn't, and in fact, the Created field of FileVersion seems to be simply incorrect in many cases.  For instance, when I look at the
version history page for one item I see:
2.0  
 1/15/2015 4:35 PM   Edit 
 Administrator  < 1 KB   
1.0  
 1/12/2015 4:30 PM   Edit 
 Administrator  < 1 KB  
But File.Versions has:
3.0  1/15/2015  5:33:49 AM
2.0  1/12/2015 5:18:11 AM
1.0  1/12/2015 5:18:11 AM
Obviously the latter is in the UTC, but even converted to local time, the timestamps don't correspond at all. Nor do I understand why there are three entries (I assume 3.0 is the 'latest' version that the version history screen doesn't show, but it's reported
'Created' date is before the date of version 2).
GetVersionCollection in comparison returns:
<Version Departments=";#Sales;#Development;#" Modified="2015-01-15T05:35:48Z" Editor="1;#Administrator,#i:0#.w|sp2013dev\administrator,#,#,#Administrator" />
<Version Departments=";#Development;#Sales;#" Modified="2015-01-15T03:55:07Z" Editor="1;#Administrator,#i:0#.w|sp2013dev\administrator,#,#,#Administrator" />
<Version Departments=";#Development;#Sales;#" Modified="2015-01-12T05:30:06Z" Editor="1;#Administrator,#i:0#.w|sp2013dev\administrator,#,#,#Administrator" />
Where the 3rd entry would seem to be version 1.0 (512), and the first entry the latest version, but the middle entry has a completely different date that doesn't correspond to anything else!
And yes I'm absolutely sure these are all for the same item.
BTW if I specify "Created" as the field for GetVersionCollection, I just get the same Created date for all 3:
1/12/2015 5:15:48 AM - a completely new date that doesn't correspond to anything else at all!
For kicks I just tried it with the "Version" field, and now I get:
<Version Version="4.0" Modified="2015-01-15T05:35:48Z" Editor="1;#Administrator,#i:0#.w|sp2013dev\administrator,#,#,#Administrator" />
<Version Version="3.0" Modified="2015-01-15T05:33:49Z" Editor="1;#Administrator,#i:0#.w|sp2013dev\administrator,#,#,#Administrator" />
<Version Version="2.0" Modified="2015-01-15T03:55:07Z" Editor="1;#Administrator,#i:0#.w|sp2013dev\administrator,#,#,#Administrator" />
<Version Version="1.0" Modified="2015-01-12T05:30:06Z" Editor="1;#Administrator,#i:0#.w|sp2013dev\administrator,#,#,#Administrator" />
Well I suppose technically that now gives me enough info to locate the right version, but talk about convoluted...then I still have to figure out how to parse the field value (which in this case is a multi-choice field, but I need to support all field types).

Answer 1

Hi,
Please check the code as below, it working fine in my test environment.
public DataTable GetDoucmentHistory(string listName, int id)
using (ClientContext ctx = GetClientContext())
var file = ctx.Web.Lists.GetByTitle(listName).GetItemById(id).File;
var versions = file.Versions;
ctx.Load(file);
ctx.Load(versions);
ctx.Load(versions, vs => vs.Include(v => v.CreatedBy));
ctx.ExecuteQuery();
var ds = CreatHistoryDataSet();
foreach (FileVersion fileVersion in versions)
var row = ds.Tables[0].NewRow();
row["CreatedBy"] = fileVersion.CreatedBy.Title;
row["Comments"] = fileVersion.CheckInComment;
fileVersion.Created.ToUniversalTime();
row["Created"] = fileVersion.Created.AddHours(-8).ToShortDateString() + " " +
fileVersion.Created.AddHours(-8).ToShortTimeString();
row["Title"] = file.Title;
row["VersionLabel"] = fileVersion.VersionLabel;
row["IsCurrentVersion"] = fileVersion.IsCurrentVersion;
ds.Tables[0].Rows.Add(row);
DataView view = ds.Tables[0].DefaultView;
view.Sort = "VersionLabel DESC";
DataTable sortedTable = view.ToTable();
return sortedTable;
private static System.Data.DataSet CreatHistoryDataSet()
DataSet ds = new DataSet();
DataTable table = new DataTable();
table.Columns.Add("Title");
table.Columns.Add("Created");
table.Columns.Add("CreatedBy");
table.Columns.Add("EncodedAbsUrl");
table.Columns.Add("VersionLabel");
table.Columns.Add("Comments");
table.Columns.Add("IsCurrentVersion");
ds.Tables.Add(table);
return ds;
To get all versions of version field you just need to call GetVersionCollection method on version field by passing it's internal name
_UIVersionString
Simple code snippet:
ListProxy.Lists lists = new Lists();
lists.UseDefaultCredentials = true;
XmlNode versions = lists.GetVersionCollection("{xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxx}",
"n", "_UIVersionString");
foreach(XmlNode version in versions.ChildNodes)
Console.WriteLine(version.Attributes["_UIVersionString"].Value);
More information is here:
http://sharepoint.stackexchange.com/questions/27346/how-to-programmatically-retrieve-item-version-history-from-client
Thanks,
Dennis Guo
TechNet Community Support
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Dennis Guo
TechNet Community Support