Today I tried to copy lists including their data from my customer’s environment to my development environment. I needed to include the data so what is easier than using the save list as template in SharePoint.
Custom List Templates
I created my .stp files of 1 Picture Library and 1 Document Library and 4 custom lists. The custom lists were originally created using a list definition in Visual Studio (Is this relevant how they were created?)
Then I uploaded the .stp files to my List Template Gallery and on the Picture Library and the Document Library appeared. when I tried to create the lists.
I came across this article which sounds similar: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/825215
So I created a new site collection and I tried a couple of site collection templates. Same result. I’m very sure that I had the same site template as my customer anyway.
The solution
I had to deploy the custom solution that originally was used to create the lists in my customer’s site. Once I did that the lists form the templates appeared in my create screen. The current data in the lists was all included so SharePoint is definitely picking up the .stp files now.