‘TF400499: You have not set your team field’ when trying to update Team Settings via the TFS API

I have recently been automating TFS admin processes such as creating a new team within an existing team project. The TFS team is now our primary means we use to segment work so we need to create new teams fairly often, so automation makes good sense.

As far as I can see, there are no command line tools, like TF.EXE or WITADMIN.EXE, to do most of the team operations. They are usually browser based. So I have been using PowerShell and the TFS API for the automation.

I hit the problem that when trying to save the team’s backlog iteration, iteration paths etc. for a newly created team using  the SetTeamSettings method. I was seeing

Exception calling "SetTeamSettings" with "2" argument(s): "TF400499: You have not set your team field."
At C:Projectstfs2012TFSPowerShellSet-TfsTeamConfig.ps1:37 char:1
+ $configSvc.SetTeamSettings($configs[0].TeamId , $configs[0].TeamSettings)
+ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    + CategoryInfo          : NotSpecified: (:) [], MethodInvocationException
    + FullyQualifiedErrorId : SoapException

This was strange as I had previously tested my PowerShell script file with hard coded values to update an existing team without error. When I inspecting the parameters being passed all looked OK, I had set a value for the team field and the read only property defining where to store the team data was correct (into the AreaPath).

After far to long I realised the problem was I had set the team field to the correct value e.g. ‘My projectMy team’, but I had not created this area path before trying to reference it. Once I had created the required area path my scripted worked as expect.

So the TF400499 error is a little confusing, it does not mean ‘not set’ but ‘not set to a valid value’