Error occurred in deployment of step ‘Activate Features’: the field with ID defined in feature was found in the current site collection or in a sub site.

Hi all,

While developing a custom content type, custom list definition based on the custom content type, I got an error while deploying to the SharePoint 2010 server.

Error:

‘Error occurred in deployment of step ‘Activate Features’: the field with ID <New GUID> defined in feature <FeatureGUID> was found in the current site collection or in a sub site.

Fix: 

Its a known issue and there couple of workarounds to fix this issue. 

Workaround 1:• Right click on Project node in Solution explorer and click "Retract".
• Close VS. This will flush the stale cache.
• Open the project in a new instance of VS and re-deploy the solution.

Workaround 2:If closing VS after retract doesn't solve the problem then a longer workaround is:

• Redeploy the project -> This will show an error during feature activation.
• Go to "Manage Site Features" under "Site Settings" in SharePoint UI in the browser.
• Activate and then Deactivate the deployed feature which contains the Field.
• Retract the Solution in VS i.e. right click on the Project node and click "Retract".
• Close VS. This will flush the stale cache.
• Open the project in a new instance of VS and re-deploy the solution.

Please refer to the MSDN KB article.

Cheers, 

--aaroh