I received this error when I was trying to restore a SharePoint 2013 SiteCollection using the Restore-SPSite command. The backup, a .bak file, was created using the Backup-SPSite command in the management shell. Following is the screenshot of the error message:
After little bit of digging, I figured out that the database backup doesn’t seem to be compatible with my latest web application. The issue in fact, also occurred when I tried to restore the db within the same web application whose one of the SiteCollection was backed in the file!
The solution, as it turns out, was to run the Upgrade-SPContentDatabase on the content database before taking the backup. Following defined is the sequence in which the process should be carried out:
- Run the command
Upgrade-SPContentDatabase WSS_Content
- Backup the content db.
Backup-SPSite -Identity <SiteCollectionGUIDorURL> -Path <BackupFile>;
- Restore the content db.
Restore-SPSite -Identity <SiteCollectionURL> -Path <BackupFile> [-Force]
Key Notes
- [-Force] is optional in the Restore command.
- is the full path of the file including the .bak extension.
That’s it. It solved my problem and I was successfully able to restore the SiteCollection.
Piyush K Singh 