SharePoint 2013 People Picker error: “Sorry, we’re having trouble reaching the server"

Issue Description

I was working on a SharePoint 2013 site and trying to add some users and got the below error

I tried adding the same user on other site collections but same error.

Also checked the Event Logs but couldn’t find anything useful

Fix

I did an IISRESET and this fixed the issue

SharePoint 2013 Designer Workflow is not started and the initiator is Anonymous

Issue Description

Workflow created using SharePoint designer is not getting started and the initiator is Anonymous.

Recently I ran across an issue where a SharePoint Designer workflow associated with a list was showing the below symptoms. It was a simple list and a basic workflow sending an email. 
The status of the workflow showed :

Initiator : Anonymous and Internal Status : Not started

Screenshot below

How to fix this

1. Make sure that the below services are in Running state

Workflow Manager Backend

Service Bus Message Broker

Service Bus Gateway

Windows Fabric Host Service (FabricHostSvc)

2. Restart the WorkflowServiceBackend service

net stop WorkflowServiceBackend

net start WorkflowServiceBackend

SharePoint 2013: The server was unable to save the form at this time. Please try again.

Error Description

When I am trying to save data on any list in the farm I got the below error

The server was unable to save the form at this time. Please try again.

Fix

An IISRESET fixed the issue.

Active Directory Group Sync Issue with SharePoint 2013 Permissions

Issue

AD security group permissions are being used to control access in SharePoint 2013, however, changes to group membership in AD are not taking effect immediately in SharePoint 2013. In simple words, even after you remove a user from the AD security group - user is still able to access the site. If you add a new user to the AD security group, user still receives access denied error message in SharePoint.

Workaround - If you need to have the change take effect immediately, you can do an Application Pool recycle for that web application. 

Cause

In Windows Claims enabled web application (the default for SharePoint 2013), the logon token life time is by default 10 hours and cache life time is by default 10 minutes. Hence, the AD group modifications will not reflect immediately in SharePoint user sign-in. internally what happens is when a user accesses a SharePoint site, SharePoint checks the security token store cache for the user's claims. If the claim is found in the cache, SharePoint uses it to authorize the user. If not, SharePoint queries for claims again from the AD.

To check which values you currently have, try running the below:

$sts = Get-SPSecurityTokenServiceConfig
$sts.WindowsTokenLifetime
$sts.LogonTokenCacheExpirationWindow

Resolution

The value of token life time and cache expiration time can be set to the desired value per your needs.Lowering the token life time introduces more round trips to AD to authenticate the user, which means performance characteristics should be monitored to determine the appropriate lifetime.I have seen 10 minutes being recommended to use, but this is something that needs to be tested as it should be considered on a case by case scenario.If you would like to change the token life time, you can use the following PowerShell cmdlet to set the Windows token life time and cache expiration window to the desirable value.

The below example sets your WindowsTokenLifetime to 10minutes (10 hours is the default) and the Cache Expiration to 2 minutes (10 minutes is the default).

$sts = Get-SPSecurityTokenServiceConfig
$sts.WindowsTokenLifetime = "00:10:00"
$sts.LogonTokenCacheExpirationWindow = (New-TimeSpan –minutes 2)
$sts.Update()
iisreset 

Warning

If you set Token lifetime lesser than the token expiration window, you get this error message

"The context has expired and can no longer be used. Exception from HRESULT: 0x80090317"

Get-SPSecurityTokenServiceConfig

Set-SPSecurityTokenServiceConfig

Related

BDC The name ‘Domain\User Name‘ could not be resolved via Active Directory

Issue

When you work with SharePoint 2010 and BDC Service application when you try to create an External Content Type, you might come across this error. This is because the person who had created the Content type is not present in the Active Directory. He/she may have left your organization.

Resolution

1) Browse to Central Administration

2) Choose the BDC Service application. Make sure that this person is not listed as the administrator on the service application

3) Inside the BDC service application, select Set Metadata Store Permissions

4) The user listed in the error will be listed here.

5) Select the user and remove him/her.

6) Make sure that you select the checkbox that says - 

Propagate permissions to all BDC Models, External Systems and External Content Types in the BDC Metadata Store. Doing so will overwrite existing permissions.

7) Click OK

SharePoint Server 2013: Navigation link error for network file shares

Issue Description

Since May 2013 I have been working with Sharepoint 2013.I have been coming across new things almost everyday.Recently, I had to add a URL link to navigation menu which redirect users to a folder on the network.

On the SharePoint 2013 site based on team Site template, when a user clicks on left navigation links pointing to a file share he gets the error "Invalid Page URL:".

The problem is this was working on SharePoint 2010 and I tested this in a 2010 environemnt and it was still working.

I tried giving the locations in the below formats:

file://location1

\\server\location2

file://\\location3\folder1

No luck!!! L

I tested the same by pasting the location in Internet Explorer and it opens up.

I had opened a ticket with Microsoft which was actually identified as a bug with Sharepoint 2013.This issue has been fixed with December 10, 2013 Cumulative Update for SharePoint 2013.

Fix for the issue

Disable the MDS feature to fix this. The issue is not in a publishing site(When publishing is enabled, this feature is disabled automatically.)

Site Actions -> Site Settings -> Site Actions ->Manage site features -> Minimal Download Strategy -> Activate

SharePoint 2013 Site Collection | HTTP 404 error intermittently

Problem Description

Recently I came across a weird issue, a site collection in the SharePoint farm was giving HTTP 404 intermittently. My initial thought was maybe the whole web application had the issue but didn’t see this happening with any other site collections on the same web application. And I got this error only 1 out of 10 times. But another user seemed to have got it from the first try itself. It really baffled me for couple of hours. So I did an IIS reset and even restarted the SharePoint timer service on the SharePoint web front ends. That didn’t seem to help either.

Resolution

At some point, I realized that this was a site collection specific issue. This site collection had its own dedicated database. I had to detach and attach the content database of this site collection from the web application using Powershell (read dismount and mount)to resolve this issue.

Few weeks back I had done a detach/attach of the same content database from Central Administration. I think performing dismount and mount from Central Administration console led to this behavior. I still find this weird though.

P.S.: Please make a note of the Content DB name before you start this operation

Dismount-SPContentDatabase "<ContentDBName>"

Mount-SPContentDatabase "< ContentDBName >" -DatabaseServer "<DBServerNAme>" -WebApplication http://SiteName

PowerPivot: Secondary Logon service (seclogon) is disabled

Title:  PowerPivot: Secondary Logon service (seclogon) is disabled 

Severity:  2 - Warning 

Category: Configuration 

Explanation: Secondary Logon service (seclogon) is disabled

Resolution

Enable secondary Logon service (seclogon).

1) Login to the servers in the farm.

2) Run -> services.msc -> Secondary Logon -> Start

InfoPath Forms Services forms cannot be filled out in a Web browser because no State Service connection is configured.

Title:  InfoPath Forms Services forms cannot be filled out in a Web browser because no State Service connection is configured. 

Severity:  2 - Warning 

Category: Configuration 

Explanation:

InfoPath Forms Services is not functional on the following Web applications because there is no service connection configured for the State Service: SharePoint - 80  

Resolution

If a State Service application doesn't exist, create one by using the new-SPStateServiceApplication Powershell commandlet.

$stateName = "State Service Application"

$stateDBName = "SP_DB_State_Service"

$stateDB = New-SPStateServiceDatabase -Name $stateDBName

$state = New-SPStateServiceApplication -Name $stateName -Database $stateDB

New-SPStateServiceApplicationProxy -Name "$stateName Proxy" -ServiceApplication $state

-DefaultProxyGroup

DisplayName                 TypeName                                Id

-----------                     --------                                      --

State Service App...        State Service Proxy                    3c******-****-****-a8c4-5****008****

PowerPivot: Usage data is not getting updated at the expected frequency

I was getting the below warning from Central Administration SharePoint Health Analyzer

Title:  PowerPivot: Usage data is not getting updated at the expected frequency. 

Severity:  2 - Warning 

Category:  Configuration 

Explanation:

The PowerPivot Management Data.xlsx file is not being updated. This workbook stores internal data used by the PowerPivot Management Dashboard. The current file for PowerPivot service application <0> was last updated 5 day(s) ago.

Resolution

1) Check under what account the PowerPivotUnattendedAccount is running.

2) Open SQL Management Studio and browse to Security -> Logins

3) Give db_datareader permission to PowerPivotUnattendedAccount for the PowerPivot Service Application database

PivotTable Operation Failed: We cannot locate a server to load the workbook Data Model

While creating a demo with PowerPivot (Excel Services) on SharePoint 2013, I came across this error.

PivotTable Operation Failed: We cannot locate a server to load the workbook Data Model

Cause

The Analysis Services instance has not been configured in the Central Administration site or Analysis Services needs to be restarted

Resolution

Solution 1

You can also make sure that the steps displayed here are followed. In my case this was already done. But I am still listing it down.To work around this issue, configure the Excel Services service application on the SharePoint server. To do this, follow these steps:

1. In the Application Management section of the Central Administration home page, click Manage service applications.

2. On the Manage Service Applications page, click the Excel Services service application that you want to configure.

3. On the Manage Excel Services page, click Data Model.

4. Click Add Server.

5. In the Server Name box, type the name of the Analysis Services instance that you want to add.

6. Click Ok.

Solution 2

I restarted the SQL Server Analysis Services (POWERPIVOT) service on SQL Server Configuration Manager. That fixed the issue for me. If that didn’t help try an IISRESET.

The SDDL string contains an invalid sid or a sid that cannot be translated

I got the below error during Sharepoint 2013 configuration in Standalone mode on a Windows Server 2012. SharePoint 2013 Installation was successful. This happened while the configuration wizard was running and I think it was on step 8, the configuration failed and I got the below error.

Configuration Failed

One or more configuration settings failed. Completed configuration settings will not be rolled back. Resolve the problem and run this configuration wizard again. The following contains detailed information about the failure:

Failed to create sample data.

An exception of type System.ArgumentException was thrown. Additional exception information: The SDDL string contains an invalid sid or sid that cannot be translated.

Parameter name: sddlForm

To diagnose the problem, review the application event log and the configuration log file located at:

C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Web Server Extensions\15\LOGS\PSCDiagnostics %%%%%%%%.log

How to fix this

1) Check if the account used for installing SharePoint 2013 has dbcreator and security admin permission in SQL Server.

2) Browse to "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office Servers\15.0\Data\Office Server" and find the folder that starts with Analytics_GUID.

3) Right-click -> Properties ->Sharing ->Advanced Sharing. Check the "Share this folder' check box and click on Permissions.

4) Granted full access to everyone.

5) Added WSS_ADMIN_WPG to the sharing with full access.

6) Ran the SharePoint 2013 Products Configuration Wizard again and this completed successfully.

Incoming e-mail settings missing on Document Library Settings

When I browsed to the document library, I could not find the Incoming email settings link.

Resolution

Central Administration -> System Settings -> Configure incoming e-mail settings-> Enable sites on this server to receive e-mail? -> Yes

Also please refer to my post here.

SharePoint 2013 Incoming Email Stuck in Drop Folder

Background

- I have a SharePoint 2013 farm with 7 servers (excluding DB)

5 App Severs and 2 Web Servers

- Microsoft SharePoint Foundation Incoming E-Mail service was already enabled on all the servers in the farm.

- From Exchange side, I had configured the 2 WFE to receive mails (let us call them WFE1 and WFE2 for now).I also installed SMTP server on both the WFE1 and WFE2.

Post on Configuring Incoming Email

Now the problem…

Mails were getting dropped on the Drop folder. But…but…..the Sharepoint list was not receiving the emails. This left me banging head against wall for few hours.

I had done this before on my SharePoint 2013 sandbox (single server farm )

I read and tried multiple of things to fix this. Finally what helped me is below.

1) I stopped the Microsoft SharePoint Foundation Incoming E-Mail service on all the servers.

 I read this article.

Key excerpts from the article

 “In SharePoint 2010, the Incoming Email service timer job had a SPJobLockType of None, which means that the job ran on all servers in the farm, given the Incoming Email service was provisioned.

In SharePoint 2013, that SPJobLockType has changed to Job, which means it only runs on a single member in the farm”

SharePoint 2010:

public SPIncomingEmailJobDefinition(string name, SPService service) : base(name, service, null, SPJobLockType.None){}

SharePoint 2013:

public SPIncomingEmailJobDefinition(string name, SPService service) : base(name, service, null, SPJobLockType.Job){}

2) Based on the above info, I started the Microsoft SharePoint Foundation Incoming E-Mail service on just one of the WFE.The mails were stuck in the drop folder,still.

3) I restarted the SharePoint Timer Service (SPTimerV4) on all the (7) server in the farm.

Voila…

All the mails that were stuck in the Drop folder started delivering now.

Resolution

The fix is enable the Microsoft SharePoint Foundation Incoming E-Mail service on only one server in the farm and restart SharePoint Timer Service on all servers in the farm

SharePoint 2013 alerts mail links are wrong

Users can set up alerts to list, document libraries and blogs in SharePoint. This sends you alert emails when something changes on those lists, libraries and blogs.

However I recently came across this issue with SharePoint 2013.

The links in SharePoint 2013 alert emails are turning out to be pointing to relative URL's

They are pointing to /sitename/ instead of http://hostname/sitename/

I had observed this issue in SharePoint 2013 Enterprise Edition

But this seems to be fixed after I applied the March 2013 Public Update for SharePoint Server 2013(KB 2767999)

Sign in as Different User missing in SharePoint 2013

In SharePoint 2013,

By this time, most of you would have found out that the Sign in as Different User option is missing on the SharePoint sites.

I had to login to the server every time with the service account to get around this as when I try to open from my local machine it takes my windows credentials

Hot to fix this

Append the below to your Sharepoint site URL : 
/_layouts/closeConnection.aspx?loginasanotheruser=true

The URL should  be : 

http://sharepointsite/_layouts/closeConnection.aspx?loginasanotheruser=true