Random SharePoint Problems Explained; Intermittently

10-plus years in SharePoint support. I’ve seen things… By: Sr SEE Josh Roark

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Author: SPJR Date: 12/31/2018

SharePoint: All about non-imported user profiles

I find there is much confusion around this topic, so I'll try to clear it up here. First off,...

Author: SPJR Date: 11/21/2018

SharePoint – SAML auth: Users are authenticated as the wrong account

This is a pretty unique scenario, but it came up recently and exposed a little-known configuration...

Author: SPJR Date: 11/19/2018

This was a special situation where most of the site appeared to work, but certain links under Site...

Author: SPJR Date: 11/05/2018

SharePoint: Check Permissions and External Tokens – ADFS (SAML auth)

This post is the third part of a series on the "Check Permissions" function. It's focused on Trusted...

Author: SPJR Date: 10/03/2018

SharePoint: Unique list permissions: The server was unable to save the form at this time

Consider the following scenario:  You break permission inheritance on a list and give some users...

Author: SPJR Date: 10/01/2018

SharePoint – Intermittent "Sorry, this site hasn't been shared with you"

Consider the following scenario: Randomly, when a user browses to a resource (site, list, etc) that...

Author: SPJR Date: 09/04/2018

SharePoint: Quick Edit – The user does not exist or is not unique

Consider the following scenario: You have a SharePoint 2013 or 2016 web application that has both...

Author: SPJR Date: 08/22/2018

SharePoint: SAML Authentication - Nested Groups and Role Claims

I came across this topic troubleshooting a support case where users were getting Access Denied to a...

Author: SPJR Date: 08/07/2018

SharePoint: Windows user not equal to ADFS user

I've been over this concept with customers and support engineers so many times, that I'm not sure...

Author: SPJR Date: 07/24/2018

SharePoint 2016: FBA authentication changes

Disclaimer: The below is a summary of observations made as the result of some reverse-engineering...

Author: SPJR Date: 07/11/2018

SharePoint: Troubleshooting the Security Token Service (STS)

STS Background: In SharePoint 2010, 2013, 2016, etc, the Security Token Service (STS) is a web...

Author: SPJR Date: 06/18/2018

SharePoint: User Profile web service failures and the dreaded 8313 error

This post is about how a simple web service failure, caused by a networking or Active Directory...

Author: SPJR Date: 06/17/2018

SharePoint: Profile Sync and the Domain Users group - the Primary Group problem

This problem manifests itself in a few different ways: You create an Audience based on "Member Of"...

Author: SPJR Date: 05/27/2018

SharePoint: People Picker error: “user does not exist or is not unique” – similar account names

Consider the following scenario: SharePoint 2013 or 2016 servers are in the contoso.com domain...

Author: SPJR Date: 05/13/2018

SharePoint 2016: AD Import Profile Property Mappings aka: my profiles are missing email address

The issue that prompted this post: I was troubleshooting an issue where when using Active Directory...

Author: SPJR Date: 04/18/2018

SharePoint: The complete guide to user profile cleanup – Part 4 – 2016

This is part 4 in a series. You can find other parts here: SharePoint: The complete guide to user...

Author: SPJR Date: 04/08/2018

SharePoint: The complete guide to user profile cleanup – Part 3 – 2013

This is part 3 in a series. You can find other parts here: SharePoint: The complete guide to user...

Author: SPJR Date: 04/08/2018

SharePoint: The complete guide to user profile cleanup – Part 2 – 2010

This is part 2 in a series. You can find other parts here: SharePoint: The complete guide to user...

Author: SPJR Date: 04/08/2018

SharePoint: The complete guide to user profile cleanup – Part 1

Part 1: High-level Concepts If you have certain users that still show in the organization chart web...

Author: SPJR Date: 04/08/2018

SharePoint: Check Permissions and External Tokens - FBA

This post is a similar to my previous post on Check Permissions, except here, we'll be talking about...

Author: SPJR Date: 03/20/2018

SharePoint 2016 – MIM 2016: Full Sync does not export profile pictures to Active Directory

Consider the following scenario: You have SharePoint 2016 configured to import user profiles using...

Author: SPJR Date: 03/12/2018

SharePoint: Managed Metadata: The term is not a valid term

The main point of this post is to create awareness around the fact that you can use the CreateTerm...

Author: SPJR Date: 03/11/2018

SharePoint 2010 - 2013: FIM Sync does not remove profiles for users that were deleted from AD

Consider the Following Scenario: You're using SharePoint Profile Synchronization (FIM Sync) to...

Author: SPJR Date: 03/07/2018

SharePoint: MIM 2016 Export for SharePoint MA fails

Consider the following scenario: You have SharePoint 2016 set up to import user profiles from an...

Author: SPJR Date: 02/14/2018

SharePoint: The Complete Guide to portalsuperuseraccount and portalsuperreaderaccount

What are the Super User and Super Reader accounts for? This is explained pretty well on Technet...

Author: SPJR Date: 02/07/2018

SharePoint: Common NTLM Authentication Issues, aka: Consider Ditching NTLM

NTLM authentication is not great. It’s not the fastest. In most cases, that honor would go to...

Author: SPJR Date: 01/14/2018

SharePoint: Quick Troubleshooting Tip: HTTP Response Headers

Often in troubleshooting SharePoint, we’re interested to know on which Web-Front-End (WFE) a certain...

Author: SPJR Date: 01/03/2018

SharePoint: People Picker shows disabled user accounts in domain migration scenario

This is one that has plagued SharePoint admins since SharePoint 2007 and earlier.  There are a few...

Author: SPJR Date: 12/20/2017

SharePoint: Troubleshooting “User cannot be found” and other mysterious user behavior

Some potential symptoms: You try to add a user to a SharePoint group. The account is added without...

Author: SPJR Date: 12/17/2017

SharePoint: Person or Group column does not display expected results when limited to a SharePoint group

Consider the following scenario: You have a SharePoint list with a Person or Group column. This...

Author: SPJR Date: 11/29/2017

SharePoint: The problem with changing UserQueryMaxTimeout

Consider the following scenario: You have a fairly large and / or complex Active Directory (AD)...

Author: SPJR Date: 11/26/2017

SharePoint: Profile Synchronization - some users are missing their manager

Important: This little quirk only occurs with the “SharePoint Profile Synchronization” (aka: FIM...

Author: SPJR Date: 10/23/2017

SharePoint: Importing Manager property with AD Import: A Troubleshooter

Overview: This is a fairly visible problem within SharePoint.  It can cause the organization chart...

Author: SPJR Date: 10/11/2017

SharePoint: User profiles are imported with wrong domain name

In certain domain configurations, User Profiles can be imported with the incorrect domain name. For...

Author: SPJR Date: 10/08/2017

SharePoint: Troubleshooting Check Permissions - Windows auth

Note: This post is specific to Windows Authentication (NLTM or Kerberos) within SharePoint. For...

Author: SPJR Date: 09/05/2017

SharePoint: Considerations when switching from FIM Sync to AD Import

Many times we end up battling “SharePoint Profile Synchronization” (aka: “FIM Sync”) for a while...

Author: SPJR Date: 08/14/2017

SharePoint 2016: Import profile pictures with MIM 2016 - walkthrough

In this post, I'll walk through importing user profile pictures to SharePoint 2016 using Microsoft...

Author: SPJR Date: 08/07/2017

SharePoint: Issues with profile pictures when MySite uses SAML auth

There are a couple known issues with user profile pictures when your Mysite web application uses...

Author: SPJR Date: 07/25/2017

SharePoint: Certain users not resolved in People Picker

Here I cover how to use Fiddler and IE Developer Tools (F12) to troubleshoot People Picker problems...

Author: SPJR Date: 07/18/2017

SharePoint 2013 & 2016 - Manager and Assistant values swapped in User Profiles

Here’s one that was a problem in SharePoint 2013, was fixed, but never ported to SharePoint 2016, so...

Author: SPJR Date: 07/17/2017

SharePoint: Users randomly lose permission - are deleted from site

This is a good one, it appears to be random, and intermittent, and is extremely hard to track down....

Author: SPJR Date: 07/12/2017

SharePoint: Facts and Troubleshooting the Claims To Windows Token Service (C2WTS)

Facts: 1. The Claims to Windows Token Service (from here on denoted as "C2WTS") is only used when...

Author: SPJR Date: 06/27/2017

SharePoint 2013: User Profile Incremental Synchronization timer job fails with Access Denied

Problem: Consider the following scenario: The User Profile Service (the web service, NOT the Sync...

Author: SPJR Date: 06/26/2017

SharePoint 2016: Some Profile Pictures are not imported from MIM 2016

Problem: Consider the following scenario: You have SharePoint 2016 set up to import user profiles...

Author: SPJR Date: 06/20/2017

SharePoint 2016: Active Directory Import timer job does not run

This is an interesting "gotcha" that came up recently: Problem: The Active Directory Import...

Author: SPJR Date: 06/20/2017

Users forced to re-authenticate unexpectedly

This post covers the scenario where users log in via a trusted provider / SAML-claims  (like ADFS,...

Author: SPJR Date: 06/13/2017

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