Finding all references where a master page, page layout, or other file is used in a MOSS 2007 Publishing (WCM) site

Seems to be quite a common question popping up recently... people are trying to delete their master page or page layout (or some other file) from the Master Page Gallery but keep getting the following error:

Even though you think you cleaned up all the places where a file is being used, I've yet to see a bug in MOSS that says a file is being used yet it really isn't. Chances are, you just missed one (or two). The easiest way to find where a file is being used is to go to the Site Content & Structure page via Site Actions » Manage Content and Structure. Then open up the Master Page Gallery. You'll notice a option in the toolbar: Show Related Resources. Select that item to create a split view. Now each item in the Master Page Gallery (shown in the top pane) has a radio button next to it. Selecting one will show you all the places that file is being used throughout the site collection.

Here's a screen shot of a particular page layout and where it is being used within my site collection:

[Update 8/8/2007] Katrien has a good post when this is actually an error, also referencing the MSFT KB 926812.

Technorati tags: sharepoint, moss, wcm, publishing site

posted on Wednesday, July 04, 2007 1:21 PM

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# re: Finding all references where a master page, page layout, or other file is used in a MOSS 2007 Publishing (WCM) site 7/5/2007 9:24 AM Shane Perran

Great Tip Andrew. It is indeed a very common question.

# re: Finding all references where a master page, page layout, or other file is used in a MOSS 2007 Publishing (WCM) site 7/5/2007 1:01 PM Kanwal

Thanks for the tip Andrew. Its now part of the buzz, SharePoint Buzz

# re: Finding all references where a master page, page layout, or other file is used in a MOSS 2007 Publishing (WCM) site 7/11/2007 4:35 PM Cale Hoopes - Ascentium Corp.

Ok, so I have a master page. It says it uses like 5 resources, then it says its Used By itself and its Uses itself. I didn't do anything special here... its just a master page. However, when trying to delete it, I still get the "referenced" error. Any ideas?

# re: Finding all references where a master page, page layout, or other file is used in a MOSS 2007 Publishing (WCM) site 7/20/2007 6:57 AM Sandy Donaldson

Hi all, getting the same problem as Cale, master page is referencing itself.

Is there any way to unreference then delete it?

# re: Finding all references where a master page, page layout, or other file is used in a MOSS 2007 Publishing (WCM) site 7/20/2007 10:12 AM AC [MVP MOSS]

Cale/Sandy - Not sure... never seen that before. Try removing the master via the object model?

# re: Finding all references where a master page, page layout, or other file is used in a MOSS 2007 Publishing (WCM) site 7/20/2007 11:50 AM Sandy Donaldson

Can you direct me how?

# re: Finding all references where a master page, page layout, or other file is used in a MOSS 2007 Publishing (WCM) site 7/20/2007 2:14 PM AC [MVP MOSS]

Sandy-
Please refer to the SDK... but simply getting a reference to the item in the list and calling SPListItem.Delete() should do the trick. No idea if this would work... just an idea I'd try.

# re: Finding all references where a master page, page layout, or other file is used in a MOSS 2007 Publishing (WCM) site 8/7/2007 1:33 PM Jeff Roberts

Andrew-
Katrien has found more information on this 'bug' as well as a work-around. Check out her blog article at: http://www.katriendg.com/aboutdotnet/Default.aspx?m=1&y=2007

# re: Finding all references where a master page, page layout, or other file is used in a MOSS 2007 Publishing (WCM) site 8/7/2007 5:04 PM AC [MVP MOSS]

Jeff-
Thanks for the pointer... I'll update the blog post to point to her post and the MSFT KB in her post.

# re: Finding all references where a master page, page layout, or other file is used in a MOSS 2007 Publishing (WCM) site 3/17/2008 9:58 AM Kunz

Is there a way to call this "Show related Resources" query programmatically?
Because i want to generate something like a report of files that are (not) referenced. No i have to click and wait for the page to reload to see if the file is referenced.

# re: Finding all references where a master page, page layout, or other file is used in a MOSS 2007 Publishing (WCM) site 3/24/2008 9:53 PM AC [MVP MOSS]

Kunz-
I'm not sure offhand how it works, but you can definately do it via the API. As a general rule, anything MSFT does via the browser UI and STSADM is available to us as those two interfaces were built on top of the public SharePoint API.

# re: Finding all references where a master page, page layout, or other file is used in a MOSS 2007 Publishing (WCM) site 3/27/2008 2:57 PM Aaron Scholl

This is definitely a nice feature to have but what I really want it for is to find out what Reusable Content items are being used by what pages if I want to delete a reusable content item.

I tried to use this same feature when in that list under Manage Content and Structure but I never get any items even though I know I have pages that use the reusable content. Any ideas?

# re: Finding all references where a master page, page layout, or other file is used in a MOSS 2007 Publishing (WCM) site 8/28/2008 6:53 AM chrissey man

thanx a lot man, saved my day

# re: Finding all references where a master page, page layout, or other file is used in a MOSS 2007 Publishing (WCM) site 3/16/2009 4:58 AM tower defense

It says it uses like 5 resources, then it says its Used By itself and its Uses itself. I didn't do anything special here... its just a master page. However, when trying to delete it, I still get the "referenced" error.

# re: Finding all references where a master page, page layout, or other file is used in a MOSS 2007 Publishing (WCM) site 6/2/2009 7:02 AM Maz

I too have a master page that references itself it seems.
Key question: WHY does this occur? Is it down to the known microsoft bug (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/926812/en-us) or is it down to me?

What I am doing.
I have a feature which places a custom master in a MOSS 2007 site. The FeatureReceiver eventhandler for the Activated event sets a top site collection and all sub webs within it to use the custom master page. The Deactivating eventhandler undoes this.

I am sure that both those work correctly.

The only thing I can think of is that in the custom.master mark up I have the following line

<%@ Master Inherits="CustomIntranetMasterPage.Master,CustomIntranetMasterPage, Version=1.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=10e2ca727a54ef9d" language="C#"%>

Is that responsible for this self-referencing?
If not is this known bug solved in SP2 MOSS

Thanks.

# re: Finding all references where a master page, page layout, or other file is used in a MOSS 2007 Publishing (WCM) site 10/24/2009 5:44 PM games

This is definitely a nice feature to have, thanks a lot.

# re: Finding all references where a master page, page layout, or other file is used in a MOSS 2007 Publishing (WCM) site 2/3/2010 2:56 AM seo services

These are awesome ! thanks for sharing.

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