How to use PnP PowerShell in SharePoint Online/2013/2016/2019

Hello Folks, This piece of the article talks about getting started with PnP PowerShell which applies to SharePoint 2013/2016 as well as SharePoint Online to manage the SharePoint environment remotely via PowerShell Scripting as the commands use CSOM.

If you take PowerShell which means in simple terms you are going to automate some repetitive admin-related tasks which help to ease the job of developers/admins drastically.

To get started, the first thing is to set up the environment. There are certain steps to be followed for the setup.

Installation

There are 2 ways to install the cmdlets. We recommend, where possible, to install them from the PowerShell Gallery. Check out the “Getting Started with the Gallery” section to make sure you have all requirements in place.

Alternatively, you can download the setup files and install the cmdlets directly.

PowerShell Gallery

If your main OS is Windows 10, or if you have PowerShellGet installed, you can run the following commands to install the PowerShell cmdlets:

SharePoint Version	Command to install
SharePoint Online	Install-Module SharePointPnPPowerShellOnline
SharePoint 2016	Install-Module SharePointPnPPowerShell2016
SharePoint 2013	Install-Module SharePointPnPPowerShell2013

If your System is running with PowerShell Version 3 or 4, you’ll get an error stating below when you try executing the SharePoint Online Command,

Run this command to check the version of your PowerShell installed in your system

$PSVersionTable.PSVersion

To get that sorted out, you’ll need to install the PackageManagement PowerShell Modules Preview – March 2016 to proceed forward

The preview release includes PackageManagement (previously known as OneGet) and PowerShellGet Windows PowerShell modules. The versions of these modules include the functionality of those that shipped with WMF 5.0.

The preview also installs exclusively on systems running Windows PowerShell 4 or Windows PowerShell 3 only. This preview will not install on any systems running Windows PowerShell 5 (including Windows 10) which already ship with these modules.

If you plan to move to Windows PowerShell 5, we advise you to skip installing this preview and instead install our WMF 5.0 or upgrade to Windows 10.

After successful installation of PackageManagement PowerShell Modules Preview – March 2016 in the server, proceed forward

For this demo, I’ll be using Windows 10 as base OS. Open PowerShell ISE from your windows 10 machine

Execute this command for SharePoint Online in the PowerShell Editor

Install-Module SharePointPnPPowerShellOnline

It gives a popup stating PowerShellGet Requires NuGet Provider version ‘2.8.5.201’ or newer to interact with NuGet-based repositories.

Click “Yes” to install the NuGetProvider Packet Management

PowerShell will download the DLL from the oneget.org site

During the process, you get a popup stating that you are installing the modules from an untrusted repository

Click “Yes” to proceed.

The SharePointPnPPowerShellOnline package will start getting installed

After successful installation, verify the installed module by running this command

Get-Module SharePointPnPPowerShell* -ListAvailable | Select-Object Name,Version | Sort-Object Version -Descending

PS C:\WINDOWS\system32> Get-Module SharePointPnPPowerShell* -ListAvailable | Select-Object Name,Version | Sort-Object Version -Descending

Name Version

—- ——-

SharePointPnPPowerShellOnline 3.2.1810.0

Here is how you can connect to a SharePoint Online Site using PnP PowerShell

Connect-PnPOnline -Url https://o365cr7.sharepoint.com -Credentials (Get-Credential)

And enter the credentials to connect to the site

Once you are connected to the SharePoint online site you can perform numerous operations like Create, Read, Update, Delete operations, and a lot more. To see the available cmdlets for the installed PnP module, execute this command,

Get-Command -Module *PnP*

PS C:\WINDOWS\system32> Get-Command -Module *PnP*

CommandType	Name	Version	Source
Alias	Connect-PnPHubSite	3.2.1810.0	SharePointPnPPowerShellOnline
Alias	Disconnect-PnPHubSite	3.2.1810.0	SharePointPnPPowerShellOnline
Alias	Ensure-PnPFolder	3.2.1810.0	SharePointPnPPowerShellOnline
Alias	Execute-PnPQuery	3.2.1810.0	SharePointPnPPowerShellOnline
Alias	Load-PnPProvisioningTemplate	3.2.1810.0	SharePointPnPPowerShellOnline
Function	Disable-PnpDevice	1.0.0.0	PnpDevice
Function	Enable-PnpDevice	1.0.0.0	PnpDevice
Function	Get-PnpDevice	1.0.0.0	PnpDevice
Function	Get-PnpDeviceProperty	1.0.0.0	PnpDevice
Cmdlet	Add-PnPApp	3.2.1810.0	SharePointPnPPowerShellOnline
Cmdlet	Add-PnPClientSidePage	3.2.1810.0	SharePointPnPPowerShellOnline
Cmdlet	Add-PnPClientSidePageSection	3.2.1810.0	SharePointPnPPowerShellOnline
Cmdlet	Add-PnPClientSideText	3.2.1810.0	SharePointPnPPowerShellOnline
Cmdlet	Add-PnPClientSideWebPart	3.2.1810.0	SharePointPnPPowerShellOnline

You may like the following PowerShell tutorials:

Hope this article will be helpful to get started with PnP PowerShell in SharePoint Online or SharePoint 2016/2013.

Prabhu Nehru

I’m a SharePoint Consultant with extensive experience in SharePoint/Office 365 and related technologies and I’m currently based out of Coimbatore (India).