Top Features of SharePoint Manager 2013 Every Admin Should Know

Quick Tips and Shortcuts for Mastering SharePoint Manager 2013SharePoint Manager 2013 is a lightweight, read-only tool that lets administrators and developers inspect the hierarchical structure and properties of a SharePoint farm directly from a desktop. It exposes objects that are otherwise reached only via PowerShell, the server object model, or the SharePoint UI—making it invaluable for troubleshooting, auditing, and learning how SharePoint stores configuration and content. This article collects practical tips, keyboard shortcuts, and workflows to help you get the most out of SharePoint Manager 2013.

What SharePoint Manager 2013 is best for

• Quick inspection of farm structure: See farms, web applications, site collections, webs, lists, fields, content types, features, solutions, and more in a single tree view.
• Property discovery: View internal properties, GUIDs, file system locations, and feature IDs that are useful for PowerShell scripting or debugging.
• Non-invasive troubleshooting: Because it’s read-only, you can explore production environments without risk of accidental writes.
• Learning tool: Useful for developers and admins to understand object relationships and defaults used by SharePoint.

Installation and safe-use tips

• Run the version built for SharePoint 2013 on a server that has SharePoint 2013 binaries installed. It uses the server object model and will not work from a machine without SharePoint installed.
• Run as an account with Farm Administrator privileges to see everything; otherwise many nodes and properties will be hidden.
• Prefer running it on a test or staging environment first to learn navigation before opening production farms.
• Keep the tool updated from trusted sources; older community builds may have bugs or compatibility issues.

Interface essentials and navigation shortcuts

• The left pane shows a collapsible tree of SharePoint objects (Farm → Servers → Services → Web Applications → Site Collections → Sites → Lists → Items). The right pane shows properties and values for the selected node.
• Keyboard shortcuts:
  • Arrow keys — navigate nodes (Up/Down), expand (Right), collapse (Left).
  • Enter — expand/collapse selected node.
  • Ctrl+F — open the Find dialog to search node names and property values.
  • F2 — copy the selected property’s value to clipboard (works on property grid cells).
  • Ctrl+C — copy selected text from property pane.
• The Find dialog supports searching by object name, GUID, property name, or property value — use GUIDs when you need to jump directly to a specific object you discovered in logs or SharePoint errors.

Practical quick tips for common tasks

• Inspecting a missing feature activation:

  1. Search for the feature ID (GUID) using Ctrl+F.
  2. Locate Feature definitions under the Web Application or Site/Web level to see Activation status and scope.
  3. Note the Feature folder location and feature.xml values in properties to map to deployed solution packages.

• Locating a list or content type by GUID:

  • Use the Find dialog with the GUID from an error or a PowerShell output. When you find the list or content type node, the properties will show ParentWeb and ParentList, which helps map the item to a site URL.

• Mapping a database, web app, or service instance:

  • Select the database node to view the database name, server, and GUID. Useful when you need to locate which SQL instance hosts a given content DB.

• Troubleshooting deleted or orphaned items:

  • Look for null or unexpected values in properties such as ParentWeb, ParentList, or FileLeafRef. Orphaned items often reveal mismatched IDs that explain errors in site rendering or upgrade.

• Verifying timer jobs, features, and solutions:

  • Inspect Timer Service → Jobs to see registered timer jobs, schedules, and assemblies.
  • Solutions show deployed status and deployment targets; use this to confirm whether a WSP was deployed farm-wide or only to specific web apps.

Using SharePoint Manager 2013 with PowerShell and logs

• Use SharePoint Manager to locate exact property names and GUIDs to feed into PowerShell commands (e.g., Get-SPWeb, Get-SPSite, Get-SPFeature by ID). Example pattern:
  • Find the object and copy its GUID or URL, then run:

    
    Get-SPSite -Identity "<site-collection-url>" | Get-SPWeb -Limit All | Where-Object { $_.Fields["FieldInternalName"] -ne $null } 

• When you find odd properties or values, cross-check with ULS logs and Event Viewer timestamps to correlate changes and errors.
• Keep a list of commonly referenced internal property names and node paths to speed up future lookups.

Organizing your workflow: checklists and best practices

• Before making changes via PowerShell or UI, use SharePoint Manager to:
  • Verify object GUIDs and property values.
  • Confirm solution and feature activation scope.
  • Identify associated databases and service instances.
• When troubleshooting, capture screenshots of property pages showing unexpected values (include GUIDs and timestamps). This is faster than copying long property dumps.
• Document frequently used paths and searches (e.g., path to a custom feature or timer job) in a personal cheat sheet.

Common pitfalls and how to avoid them

• Expect read-only limitations — SharePoint Manager does not modify farm state. Use it only for discovery; apply changes via supported tools (PowerShell, Central Admin).
• Running from a non-SharePoint machine will fail because it relies on the SharePoint server object model.
• Misinterpreting transient values — some properties can be populated dynamically at runtime; verify with other sources (logs, Central Admin) before acting.

Advanced tips for power users

• Combine SharePoint Manager with selective PowerShell scripts: copy GUIDs and run targeted scripts to export definitions, move content, or deactivate problematic features.
• Use the tool to learn default configurations and property names for custom development—this speeds up building robust solutions that align with SharePoint internals.
• For multisite farms, use the search feature to jump quickly across web applications and site collections rather than manually expanding trees.

Quick reference: useful node locations

• Farm → Services — see service instances and timer service.
• Farm → Solutions — deployed WSPs and scopes.
• Web Applications → [Your Web App] → Site Collections → [SPSite] → Webs → Lists → Content Types/Fields.
• Databases — content DBs and config DB with server names and GUIDs.
• Features — both farm-scoped and web/site-scoped feature definitions with Activation states.

Final notes

SharePoint Manager 2013 is a fast, focused inspector for understanding and troubleshooting SharePoint farms. Use it as your primary discovery tool to obtain exact identifiers and property structures, then perform changes with supported tools. Master the search and keyboard shortcuts, build a short personal cheat sheet of common paths/GUIDs, and pair the tool with PowerShell for efficient, safe administration.