Content Deployment job failing because of mismatched feature versions

Question

I have content deployment (using database snapshots) configured between an authoring and production SharePoint 2010 environment.

I have a feature called PublishingContent_ContentTypes which I upgraded to version 1.2.1.0 (from 1.2.0.0) to add a new field to a content type. I upgraded the containing WSP on each environment and used Chris O'Brien's Feature Upgrade Kit to upgrade the feature on the sites.

After that, in each environment, I confirmed that version 1.2.1.0 of the PublishingContent_ContentTypes feature is deployed to the site.

However, my content deployment job is failing with the following error:

Feature 'PublishingContent_ContentTypes' is deployed but its version '1.2.0.0' is below the minimum required version of '1.2.1.0'.

This appears to be happening in the import phase of content deployment. That is, after the snapshot of the source content database has been taken and when the job begins importing content into the destination environments.

Does anyone have any thoughts about why this would be happening? Thank you

Answer 1

I would recommend you to deactivate and uninstall the feature using stsadm/PowerShell on destination environment first, the retract and delete the WSP containing the feature. Now, try to add and deploy the WSP containing correct feature version, but DON'T activate/deactivate the feature. In fact let this feature activation/deactivation should be done using Content Deployment (i.e. from Source to Destination).