You may encounter the Sorry, something went wrong error in SharePoint due to several reasons or different case scenarios as this is a generic error. In this post, we take a look at the various instances of this particular error and the associated or corresponding solutions to each instance.
Sorry, something went wrong error in SharePoint
Depending on the task you performed or were performing when you encountered the error on your system, refer to the section(s) below for the most applicable solutions to resolve the issue. Keep in mind that you may need to be or require the assistance of a SharePoint administrator to successfully apply and complete the fixes described.
Sorry, something went wrong when accessing the external shared SharePoint library folder
When you share a SharePoint library folder with some users outside of your organization using Share > Send link > Specific people > Allow editing, some of the users may report the following error message when trying to get access:
Sorry, something went wrong
This operation is available only for a web with unique permissions.
Whether this issue occurs in folders of one site collection or folders of all site collections or the same error is reported when sharing individual files with the impacted users or whether these impacted users use the same email tenant, you can follow the steps below to troubleshoot the issue:
- Navigate to SharePoint admin center > Policies > Sharing and check whether an expiration date has been set for guest users.
- Navigate to Microsoft 365 admin center > Users > Guest users and delete the impacted users, then re-share the folder.
- Navigate to Site settings > Site Collection Features and deactivate the Limited-access user permission lockdown mode feature.
Read: SharePoint cannot open Office documents in SharePoint Libraries
Sorry, something went wrong error on a Site Page with a Pages library web part added
You encounter this error when selecting Show Related Resources within the Site Content and Structure page (sitemanager.aspx). This might happen if a list view web part that is consuming a publishing or pages library has the option Require Content Approval enabled. To resolve this issue, do the following:
- Create a page in the pages library and add the web part there, instead of creating the page in the site pages library.
- Turn off Require content approval for submitted items on the page’s library.
Read: How to add and edit classic SharePoint pages
Sorry, something went wrong when opening or loading SharePoint pages or while creating the My Site Host site
When this error occurs, you will get the following full error message:
Sorry, something went wrong
We’re having trouble loading some parts of this page, but your documents aren’t affected. While we work on fixing it, you can continue using your documents like you normally would.
This error may occur while creating the My Site Host site because the User Profile Service is not connected with the respective web application. In this case, to resolve the issue, you simply need to:
- Re-create the User Profile Service application and MySite.
- Connect your web application with User Profile Service for the site to open properly.
Read: Add sections and columns on a SharePoint Modern Page
You will encounter this error when opening or loading a SharePoint page or site, due to the following reasons:
- Internal Server issue – If you have SharePoint hosted in-house on your servers, then for any server-related issues, you will receive any of the common HTTP Status Code errors when accessing a SharePoint site. On the other hand, if you have SharePoint Online then, check if Microsoft posted any incidents on the tenant admins page. Internal server errors are from SharePoint servers, an end user cannot do anything to resolve it until the server issue has been resolved. So, if you are receiving Internal Server Error on your SharePoint online page, contact your organization’s IT admin.
- Insufficient or no permission – If you have insufficient or no permission/access, you will not be able to open a SharePoint page. For any access-related issues, which could also be due to company policy that does not allow site access from a non-company device, you can contact the SharePoint site administrator to verify your access.
- The resource is not available – You’ll receive the 404 error in SharePoint when trying to open a page or site. This could be that the particular page or the entire SharePoint has been deleted or the SharePoint page, site, or folder has been renamed or moved to a new location. In any case, you can try restoring that particular item from recycle bin and check if the error is resolved. You can also search the site with the same name and check if any file/page is returned. If you do not find the correct file/page then, check the SharePoint recycle bin and restore the file from there. If you are unable to find the resource in the recycle bin as well, you can contact your company IT and see if they can help you restore it from their database. If you are using SharePoint Online, then request your IT to raise a case for Disaster Data Recovery with Microsoft.
- Site cache issues – You may also have issues opening a SharePoint page or site due to Site Cache. In this case, for a quick fix, you can press Ctrl + F5 to refresh the browser page which is not loading correctly. You can also try to open your SharePoint site in incognito mode or use a different browser and see if the site/page opens. if it works in an incognito window, you can clear your browser cache – Edge | Opera | Chrome & Firefox. If you are using SharePoint Online, you can check for any Microsoft incidents. For some other issues besides site cache, to find and identify the root cause, try to capture HTTP traffic of the SharePoint error page or else check the inspect element of the browser page and capture network traffic.
Read: SharePoint Tutorial for Beginners Step-by-Step
Sorry, something went wrong when creating a Site Collection
If you get this error when creating a site collection in SharePoint, to resolve the issue, you simply need to recreate the web application you created. Before you create a new web application or site collection, do the following:
- Open IIS Manager.
- Expand the local server at the top left corner.
- Select Application pools.
- Select Central Administration.
- Select Advanced Settings.
- Click Edit application pool in the right column.
- Edit shutdown time limit. Set a limit to a higher value than the default under the process model.
- Exit IIS Manager when done.
Read: How to recover & restore a deleted file in SharePoint
Sorry, something went wrong in SharePoint Workflow
Depending on how you got the error message in SharePoint Workflow, you can apply the following solutions.
- Create a new workflow. When you delete and recreate your Workflow you may encounter this error. In this case, to resolve the issue, simply create a new workflow but use a different name for it
- Flush DNS. This error can occur due to your DNS. To rule out this possibility, you can simply flush DNS on your computer. Once done, you can recycle Workflow and Service Bus services and try to publish workflow again.
- Assign db_owner permissions to your user account. If the error occurs while using workflow UI, you might want to change your permissions. To do that, go to your databases and assign db_owner permissions to your workflow service account in your database.
Sorry, something went wrong in SharePoint Search
If you get this error while using the search application in SharePoint, you can apply the following fixes to resolve the issue.
- Create a new service application – You simply need to delete the service application and then create a new one and make sure that it’s set as the default for your application.
- Change the access rights – Another applicable fix requires you to add Everyone to the Members group and set the access rights or permissions to Read Only. This isn’t the best solution, and it’s probably not the safest, so use it at your own risk.
- Enable Search Service Application – If the Search Service Application is disabled, you may encounter this issue. In this case, to make sure Search Service Application is running, navigate to Central Administration > Manage web Apps > Sharepoint – 80 > Service Connections and make sure that Search Service Application is enabled.
- Check if the SharePoint Search Host Controller is running – If SharePoint Search Host Controller isn’t running, you might get the error message while using search in SharePoint. So, open the Services console on your computer and make sure the SharePoint Search Host Controller service is started and running.
Read: SharePoint search not returning results for some users
Sorry, something went wrong when saving SharePoint Site as a template
If you get this error when you try to save SharePoint Site as a template, you can apply the following fixes in no particular order to resolve the issue.
- Change the Require content approval settings. To perform this task, do the following:
- Click the gear or cogwheel icon to open Settings.
- Choose Site settings.
- Go to the Web Designer Galleries section.
- Click on Solution.
- Click the Library tab.
- Click on Library Settings.
- Now click on Versioning Settings.
- Locate the Content approval section.
- Set the option to Require content approval for submitted items to No.
- Click OK to save changes.
- Save the site as a template. After the template is successfully created, you can enable content approval again.
Read: How to enable Versioning in SharePoint
- Publish display templates. This error may occur if your display templates aren’t published. If this is the case, then make sure that display templates are published.
- Delete the recurring calendar appointments. This error can occur if you import calendars from an older version of SharePoint to a newer version. The newer version may have issues with recurring appointments. In this case, to resolve the issue, you need to delete those recurring appointments. If you don’t want to permanently delete your appointments, you can restore them by going to the Site Contents > Recycle Bin and choosing the Restore option. After restoring the appointments, the issue should be permanently fixed.
- Make sure the correct time zone is set. In some cases, you may encounter this error if your time zone isn’t properly configured. To check time zone settings in SharePoint, do the following, open Central Administration > Application Management. Locate your web application and click the General Settings icon in the Ribbon menu. In the Web Application General Settings window that opens, check the Default Time Zone and set it accordingly. If the Default Time Zone setting is missing, you need to check if the correct time zone is set on your PC. If you adjust the time zone on your PC, head back to Web Application General Settings and set the time zone of your server, and then perform iisreset.
- Configure the Root site collection. If you create your collection in /Sites/ instead of Root, you might encounter this error. In this case, you need to create a Root site collection and see if the error is fixed.
- Make sure that your domain account has access to the SPDataAccess role. While using Access Services in SharePoint, you need to grant certain permissions to your domain account like the SPDataAccess role in the SharePoint configuration database in SQL Server.
- Restart the SPTimer service. This error can also occur while adding apps to SharePoint. In this case, to resolve the issue, simply restart the SPTimer service (OWSTIMER.EXE). To prevent a recurrence, always restart the SPTimer service every time you make a major configuration change in SharePoint.
- Check App Management Service. If the App Management Service isn’t installed, you may encounter this issue. To rule out this possibility, do the following:
-
- Open Central Administration as administrator.
- Go to Application Management > Manage Service Application.
- Choose New > App Management Service.
- Enter the necessary information in the Service Application Name, Database Server, and Database Name fields.
- Select Create new application pool option.
- Enter the name of the application pool.
- Click OK to create a new app management service.
- After the App Management service is created, go to System Settings > Manage Services on the server.
- Locate the App Management Service.
- Under the Action column, click Start.
- Go back to Manage service applications and check if the Service Application Proxy is started.
- Next, go to Site Settings.
- Click Manage site features in the Manage site features section.
- Locate the Workflows can use the app permissions option.
- Click the Activate button.
- Next, go to Site Settings > Site app permissions.
- Copy the client section of the App Identifier between the | (pipe) and @ (at) characters.
- Next, go to http://{hostname}/{catalog site}/_layouts/15/appinv.aspx.
- Paste the client section of the App Identifier to the App ID field
- Click Lookup.
I hope this post helps you!
Why does SharePoint say upload failed?
If SharePoint upload fails. you can resolve the issue by clearing out the cached documents in Microsoft Upload Center, and then configure it to always delete files from the cache when they are closed.
Read: How to upload Documents to a SharePoint Site
Why does SharePoint stop syncing?
If you’re having trouble syncing Office files, the Office Upload cache system may be interfering with SharePoint sync. To resolve the issue, select the blue OneDrive cloud icon in the notification area, at the far right of the taskbar, and then turn off the related setting in OneDrive settings.
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