Managed to Unmanaged Solution Dynamics CRM 2011 – Easy!

Paul Nieuwelaar, 16 August 2011

In Dynamics CRM 2011 when you import a Managed solution, there is no way to add or remove components from the solution, or re-export the solution from CRM. While this is true, it is possible to edit the solution outside of CRM, giving you the ability to change the Managed properties of the solution to make it ‘Unmanaged’.

The ability to toggle a solution file from a managed to unmanaged state has a few key benefits. For example, if you accidentally delete or break your solution, or if the solution was created on a trial version of CRM, you will easily be able to restore the solution using the following steps:

1. Unzip the Managed Solution .zip file to your computer.
2. Open the ‘solution.xml’ file from within the Solution folder.
3. Find the <managed> tag on approximately line 9.
4. Change the value from ‘1’ (Managed) to ‘0’ (Unmanaged).

5. Save the ‘solution.xml’ file.
6. Zip the solution again by selecting all the files within the solution folder and either using WinRAR or simply by right clicking and selecting Send to > Compressed (zipped) folder.
7. The Zip file that gets created is the new Unmanaged Solution file. Import this into CRM as usual to start using the Unmanaged Solution.

You will now be able to use the unmanaged solution, as well as all of the usual features of an unmanaged solution. This includes adding and removing components from the solution, and re-exporting the solution from CRM.