WEAKREFERENCE is converted to a REFERENCE property when retrieved

Here is s snapshot of the relevent node type definition: ['org:identity'] > nt:unstructured, mix:referenceable , mix:shareable ['org:person'] > 'org:identity', mix:referenceable, mix:shareable ... ['org:identity-group'] > 'org:identity' - 'org:name' (String) mandatory - 'org:members' (weakreference) = 'org:person' MULTIPLE INITIALIZE and the codesnippet of the property assignment: Node groupNode; //"org:identity-group" Node person; // "org:person" ... Set<Value> membersSet = new HashSet<Value>(); if (groupNode.hasProperty("org:members")) { Value[] members = groupNode.getProperty("org:members").getValues(); List<Value> membersList = Arrays.asList(members); membersSet.addAll(membersList); } Value newMember = getSession().getValueFactory().createValue(person.getIdentifier(), PropertyType.WEAKREFERENCE); membersSet.add(newMember); Value[] membersValues = new Value[membersSet.size()]; membersValues = membersSet.toArray(membersValues); groupNode.setProperty("org:members", membersValues, PropertyType.WEAKREFERENCE); getSession().save(); getSession().logout(); If I retrieve the groupe node: QueryManager queryManager = session.getWorkspace().getQueryManager(); Query q = queryManager.createQuery("SELECT * FROM 'org:identity-group' WHERE ('org:name' = '" + name + "')", "JCR-SQL2"); javax.jcr.query.QueryResult result = q.execute(); Node groupNode = null; for (NodeIterator ni = result.getNodes(); ni.hasNext();) { groupNode = ni.nextNode(); } return groupNode; Anyway between assignment, storing or retrievig the type of the value switches from WEAK- to REFERENCE.