When I use the out-of-the-box Pending Approval view under 'Site Content and Structure', it only shows me pending items for the current site, not any subsites. I would like our main approvers to be able to see a consolidated list of pending items so that they don't need to navigate to the subsites individually. 

The description of the view states that it should display pending items for subsites, so what am I missing?  I know that it won't display only "my" pending items as the description says (I can tell that from the CAML query), but that's a different matter altogether. 

Thanks.

Hi RykM,

According to your description, my understanding is the Pending approval view in Site Content and Structure didnt show items in subsites.

I tested the same scenario per your post, and the Pending approval view worked fine.

I recommend to verify the things below:

1. Check if the items which are pending for approval are submitted by you.
2. Check if the status of the items are Pending and not other status.

Thanks,

Victoria

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Victoria, thanks for the reply. Was your test on Sharepoint 2013?  Because the behavior in my installation is so totally different from what you describe. First, the CAML query for the Pending Approval view doesn't include the clause that filters for only "my" items, so I get items submitted by anybody. In my case, that's perfect, because that's what I want (but it's different from what you're seeing.)  

And the items that I see do indeed have a pending status -- it's just that I can only see them site by site. Pending items aren't rolling up to the top-level site. 

Thanks.

Hi Rykm,

Yes, I tested on SharePoint 2013.

If you are viewing the Content and Structure in the subsite, it will show the pending items in the current site and its subsites.

To view the pending items in the top level, we need to click the top level site in the left menu.

Best regards.

Thanks

While I understand that that's how it should work, unfortunately that's not how it's behaving in my case, so there's more to this than meets the eye. There must be something in my environment that's causing the problem. As an example, the screenshots below show nothing when the top-level site is selected, yet the "Departments" site shows two outstanding items from one of its sub-sites.

There may be no easy resolution to this problem, but I just wanted to show that it's clearly not doing what is expected. 

Thanks.

Hi Rykm,

I recommend to check the Content and Structure Reports list to see if the CAML query is correct and if the target audience is set for Pending Approval view.

Please access the Content and Structure Reports list at http://server/Reports%20List/AllItems.aspx.

For test, I recommend to create a new item in the list and use the same CAML query as the Pending Approval to see if the view can work correctly.

The correct CAML query for Pending Approval view is: <Where><Eq><FieldRef ID="{fdc3b2ed-5bf2-4835-a4bc-b885f3396a61}"></FieldRef><Value Type="Number">2</Value></Eq></Where>.

Best regards.

Victoria, 

It's interesting that you suggested that. That's the very first thing that I did. The CAML query is indeed just what you detailed, and a newly created view with that query yields exactly the same results. 

We've opened up a support case with Microsoft, so I hope to get to the bottom of this in the next few days.

Thank you for the suggestion.

Hello,

Have you ever had an answer from Microsoft ?

I have the same thing, but only for the top site: If I select my root site, I will not see any pages that is waiting for approval for this site or its sub sites. If I want to see what are the pages that are waiting for approval for this root site, I have to select the Pages library.

If I select a sub site, it will give me all the pages waiting for approval of the sub site and all its subsites.

I check the CAML query and have what this thread recommends.

If you have any information to share that would be great. 

Thank you,

Happouh

Happouh,

No. No resolution from Microsoft. They think it may be due to the fact that our site was originally created in Sharepoint 2007, then converted to 2010, then finally converted again to 2013. That site is our only site that originated in 2007 and it's the only one exhibiting the problem (for whatever that's worth.) 

Ryk

Hi Rykm, I found a solution for this issue on my environment.

Go to Central Administration > Application Settings > Manage Web Applications > Select the appropriate Web App > General Settings > Resource Throttling > Increase the value of "List View Threshold".

Increase this value by 1000 or 2000 and you should see the problem be fixed.

BillyBob,

I can't verify this works for me since we disabled content approval on our web site in question. But knowing that it worked for you and may well work for others, I'll mark it as the answer. Thanks for contributing to the hive-mind!

Ryk