Update Set Log error message "Version loading was stopped by AppFileUpdateLoader" is confusing

The error message, "Version loading was stopped by AppFileUpdateLoader", means that a certain change will not be made to the sys_app_file table for a particular record. The altering of the Application File record that would otherwise occur will be skipped.

This particular problem record, PRB602168 (and the related known error article KB0538918) have been opened for one specific case where the error CAN be ignored. If a user directly changes the label of a "sys_" field such as sys_id, sys_mod_count, etc. and then moves this change from one instance to another via Update Set, this can cause the "Version loading was stopped..." message to be output even though, technically, no invalid operation has been done.

There are a variety of other situations in which the error message can be ignored, and there are also a variety of other situations in which the error message is real and cannot be ignored. Contact ServiceNow Support if you are concerned and are unsure if you can ignore the error.

1. Open a new update set.
2. Click Incident > Open.
3. Open any incident
4. Right + click the header bar and select Personalize > Form Layout.
5. Add the Created field to the right side of the slushbucket and click Save.
6. Back on the Incident form, right + click the label area of the Created field and select Personalize > Label.
7. Change the value of the label from Created to Created On and click Save.
8. Complete the update set and import it into another instance.
9. Notice when committing the update set that the process will complete with failures (see screenshots below).

Follow the steps below to determine if the error message is due to a label change on a system field (sys_). If so, then the error message is a false positive, and you do not need to do anything more.

1. Open the update set logs for the retrieved update set that has the "Version loading was stopped by AppFileUpdateLoader" message.
2. Inspect the Update Set Logs related list and sort by the Created.
3. Find the error message in question.
4. Note the log messages surrounding the error message - those within 1 second of the error message. If the surrounding messages indicate that a Field Label was updated for a field whose name starts with "sys_" then there is nothing to worry about. Technically, the error message is indicating that the sys_app_file record is being skipped for the Field Label. There are no ill effects of the record being skipped though.

If you have followed these steps but did not find any surrounding message about a Field Label being updated, there still may be no problem. You can engage Customer Support if you are concerned or have noticed that some behavior is not acting as expected.