Amardeep Singh's SharePoint Blog

December cumulative updates: SharePoint 2013.

2015-01-13T01:53:00.000+05:30

December 9, 2014 Cumulative Update for SharePoint Server 2013 package

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2910945

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2910938

Description of the Office updates: December 9, 2014

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/3020812

Office 2013 cumulative update for December 2014

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/3020816

Applies to: SharePoint server 2013.

Outlook continuously prompting for password while connecting to Office 365? Solution is here.

2015-01-11T19:45:00.003+05:30

Issue: Outlook continuously prompting for password while connecting to Office 365 Find out the solution.

Background:

When attempting to create an Outlook profile or connecting to an Office 365 mailbox, you are sometimes continuously prompted for credentials. The client displays the message "trying to connect...”." If you cancel the credentials prompt, you receive the following error:

Error: The connection to Microsoft Exchange is unavailable. Outlook must be online or connected to complete this action.

Resolution:

Change the Logon network security setting to Anonymous Authentication.

Mandatory Checks:

If you can’t find “Anonymous Authentication” under Logon network security drop down, you will have to download Service Pack 2 , which is mandatory for Outlook 2010. Open attached PDF to download the Service Pack 2.

Launch Control Panel.

In Windows 8 and Windows 8.1

Swipe in from the right to open the charms, tap or click Search , and then type control panel in the search box. Or, type control panel at the Start screen.

In Windows 7

Click Start, type Control Panel in the Start Search box, and then press Enter.

3. In Control Panel, locate and double-click Mail.

4. Click Show Profiles, select your Outlook profile, and click Properties.

5. Click E-mail Accounts, select Account Settings and on the E-mail tab, click Change.

6. In the Change Account dialog, click More Settings.

7. In the Microsoft Exchange dialog, select the Security tab.

8. From the Login network security dropdown, select Anonymous Authentication and click OK.

9. Click Next and click Finish, and then click Close on the Account Settings dialog.

10. Click Close on the Mail Setup dialog, and click OK to close the Mail control panel.

Why does it happen?

This issue can occur if Logon network security under More Settings on the Microsoft Exchange Security tab is set to a value other than Anonymous Authentication.

Applies to: Outlook 2013, Office 365.

NoILMUsed UserProfileApplication class property should not use: SharePoint 2013

2015-01-09T16:29:00.000+05:30

While reading some articles on internet, I bumped in very interesting article shared by MS back in 2013.

A property name NoIMLUsed was elaborated an MS suggest this property should not be altered else can damage you are working User Profile service.

They have given a PowerShell Snippet below to be used to correct this.

$upa = Get-SPServiceApplication | ? {$_.typename -like 'User Profile *'}
if ($upa -eq $null)
{
    Write-Host "No User Profile service application is found."
    Return
}

if ($upa.noILMUsed -eq $true)
{
    Write-Host "Reverting back the NoILMUsed flag to false..."
    $upa.noILMUsed = $false
    try
    {
        $upa.Update()
    }
    catch
    {
        Write-Host "Failed updating UPA once. Try it again..."
        $upa = Get-SPServiceApplication | ? {$_.typename -like 'User Profile *'}
        $upa.noILMUsed = $false
        $upa.Update()
    }

    # check the flag after update
    $upa = Get-SPServiceApplication | ? {$_.typename -like 'User Profile *'}
    if ($upa.noILMUsed -eq $false)
    {
        Write-Host "Successfully reverted back the NoILMUsed flag to false."
    }
    else
    {
        Write-Host "Failed to revert back the flag. Please try running the script again."
        Return;
    }
}
else
{
    Write-Host "The NOILMUsed flag is already set to false. "
}

# check sync service status
$syncServices = @(Get-SPServiceinstance | ? {$_.typename -like 'User Profile Synchronization *'})
$flag = $false
foreach ($service in $syncServices)
{
    if ($service.status -eq 'Online')
    {
        $flag = $true
        break
    }
}

if ($flag -eq $false)
{
    Write-Host "The User Profile Synchronization service is not started in this farm. Please proceed with restarting the profile sync service when in need."
}
else
{
    Write-Host "All appears to be good."
}

Reference KB can be found here: https://support.microsoft.com/kb/2624198

I hope this information is useful for you.

Applies to: SharePoint Server 2013.

Version comment is blank in a document library: SharePoint 2013.

2015-01-08T01:34:00.000+05:30

Issue: When you check-in back a document and enter comment in the version history you see you comments are not saved.

Error: There is no error message, it’s just version comments are missing.

Background: on some of the site when version is enabled and require check-out before you edit a document is enabled you see that when you write comments in version and reading versions history versions are there but their associated comments are not there.

Troubleshooting:

We check-out on other document libraries and this problem was across.

We disabled version on a particular library and saw not difference.

We disabled require document to be checkout and saw no difference.

Set-up another document library with same features enabled and problem was there.

I noticed this is wider problem them expected.

Resolutions:

Found a hotfix published by MS on October, 2013 has listed about the issue.

https://support.microsoft.com/kb/2825672

This hotfix also does talks about many other related issue.

Alternatively installing cumulative update this http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2825647

could also resolve the problem.

Prerequisites for the above KB is http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2767999

Applies to: SharePoint Server 2013.

Installing IIS 8 on Windows 8.1

2015-01-06T02:54:00.000+05:30

I have seen many developers who don’t have access to Servers and wanted to explore features of a tools and test some functionality, they often has the alternative to install the Software’s on their machines.

One such component is IIS 8 on a machine which runs Windows 8.1. Let’s have a look at the options how do we install IIS 8 on a client machine such as windows 8.1.

To learn how to enable IIS and the required IIS components on Windows 8/8.1, see the instructions below.

1. Open Control Panel and click Programs and Features > Turn Windows features on or off.

Note: you can also open Control Panel by pressing windows + run and type appwiz.cpl to access control panel.

2. Enable Internet Information Services.

3. Expand the Internet Information Services feature and verify that the web server components listed below are enabled.

If you wanted to host FTP service on your machine to have it accessed as FTP Server by mapping to an external IP, you can install FTP option from here as well.

4. Click OK.

5. Windows will apply changes and will install all necessary configuration files and will ask for the reboot.

If you visit Control Panel, Administration tools is not yet available unless you will restart your PC.

6. Click Restart Now, now if you visit the visit Control Panel, Administration tools and Internet Information Services (IIS) Manager then you can open IIS 8.

7. Accessing your default site will look like below.

If you have any issues following the above steps please drop comments in the comment section I will try to help with every possible way.

Applies to: Windows 8.1, IIS 8.

We can't sync this section because you don't have write permissions: OneNote.

2015-01-05T01:00:00.000+05:30

Issue: While upgrading from our trail version of SharePoint 2013 POC to a usable set-up SharePoint 2013. We have seen an issue reported where syncing your OneNote with SharePoint resulted in an issue and get the following error.

Error: We're sorry. We can't sync this section because you don't have write permissions. Talk to your administrator to resolve the issue. (Error code: 0xE4010071)"

Troubleshooting:

We tried to download the OneNote from the site and opened it, it worked fine.

Locally there was no issue, all the updated changes were saved.

Saving or synchronizing them with SharePoint was having issue.

Opening one note book from SharePoint site was opening as read-only, despite of user having permissions.

As a part of SharePoint 2010 upgrade while working with previous clients I remember that when a site being upgraded it temporary locks for editions.

Resolution:

Thinking of the same ground, I found the MS evidence http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2777002, which talks about the same behavior.

There is workaround to this issue:

1. Open the SharePoint site, and then open the library that contains the notebook.

2. In the Connect & Export area on the LIBRARY tab, click Open with Explorer.

Expand this image

3. Copy the notebook folder that contains the section files to the local computer, and then open the section files by using OneNote.

4. And then update your information.

Once SharePoint is online you can again synchronize your updates.

If you have any issues, do let me know. I would be happier to answer those.

Reference: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/david_rasmussen/archive/2007/12/10/onenote-shared-notebooks-options-and-troubleshooting-part-1-windows-file-shares.aspx

Product Applies to: SharePoint Server 2013, One Note 2013.

Decrypt your files damaged by CTB Locker Virus.

2015-01-04T02:40:00.000+05:30

Issue: Decrypt your files damaged by CTB Locker Virus.

Background: As discussed in the last post of SharePoint Server 2013 client machine is infected with CTB locker virus, today I did more research on the finding a way to recover your file which were decrypted by CTB locker Virus.

Analysis by Symantec Connect- Security:

Decryption without the key from your attackers is not feasible, but that does not mean that a Trojan.CryptoLocker threat must seriously disrupt your business. A scan with new AntiVirus definitions will be able to detect and remove the executable file and prevent any further damage, then simply delete all the encrypted files and restore them from their last known-good backup.

With some variants of Trojan.Cryptolocker, it is possible to use Windows Powershell to generate a list of files that have been encrypted by ransomlock. You can dump the list of files in the CryptoLocker registry key using the following command:

(Get-Item HKCU:\Software\CryptoLocker\Files).GetValueNames().Replace("?","\") | Out-File CryptoLockerFiles.txt -Encoding Unicode

Note that more recent variants seem to have changed their code to prevent the generation of such a list. It will be necessary to identify the corrupted files manually.

Microsoft Built-In Tools: Windows Backup

Windows comes with a built-in backup and restore utility. Windows Backup is a freebie that can restore encrypted files (or files otherwise damaged by any threat), providing that you have made a backup of them prior to the damage. Microsoft have released a video on how to use the built-in backup and restore tool to back up your important files. Watching this simple how-to will enable you to schedule a known-good backup of your selected data, and will only cost a minute of your life. Definitely recommended!

Back up your files
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-ie/windows7/back-up-your-files

This Windows Backup tool also has the ability to create a system image- this is an exact image of the entire drive: system settings, programs, files, everything. If this system image is restored, it will not only replace all the corrupted files that Trojan.CryptoLocker has damaged- it will overwrite everything! Use system image restoration with caution.

Use a Previous Version

An alternative, if it is a technology in use in your organization, is to restore from a Previous Version. Previous versions are copies of files and folders that Windows automatically saved as part of system protection. This feature is fantastic at rescuing files that were damaged by malware. Here's another Microsoft article with all the details:

Previous versions of files: frequently asked questions
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-ie/windows7/previous-versions-of-files-frequently-asked-questions

If system protection is enabled, Windows automatically creates previous versions of files and folders that have been modified since the last restore point was made.

As an example: let's say that Trojan.CryptoLocker has turned the important MS Word document "Network and Telco.doc" into gibberish. From Windows Explorer, just right-click it, "Restore previous versions" highlight the version from last week (before the damage was done) and click Restore.

One the File Server: Volume Shadow Copies

If Trojan.CryptoLocker has damaged files that reside in a mapped directory on a corporate file server, there's a slightly different method for restoring them. If Volume Shadow Copies are enabled on the server, recovery should be easy. More details and a mention of gourmet snacks can be found in this Technet article:

Rapid Recovery with the Volume Shadow Copy Service
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-ie/magazine/2006.01.rapidrecovery(en-us).aspx

My resolution:

Please try with this site to decrypt your files that has been encryped by ransomware http://ecryptcryptolocker.com

This are the top ransomewares that has been reported.any one of this may be infected your system

How to remove the ransomware depends on what type it is.

If your web browser is locked

You can try to unlock your browser by using Task Manager to stop the web browser's process:

1. Open Task Manager. There are a number of ways you can do this:

o Right-click on an empty space on the taskbar and click Task Manager orStart Task Manager.

o Press Ctrl+Shift+Esc.

o Press Ctrl+Alt+Delete.

2. In the list of Applications or Processes, click on the name of your web browser.

3. Click End task. If you are asked if you want to wait for the program to respond, click Close the program.

4. In some workplaces, access to Task Manager may be restricted by your network administrator. Contact your IT department for help.

When you open your web browser again, you may be asked to restore your session. Do not restore your session or you may end up loading the ransomware again.

How to remove rasnomewar :

Mcafee provides a tool called stinger to remove ransomewares,malwares,trojans,etc

http://www.mcafee.com/us/downloads/free-tools/stinger.aspx

Run this tool it will remove the ransomewares.

Only few tools can remove ransomewares fully some of them i have mentioned

Microsoftsecurity essentials

Windows defender

Malwarebytes

McafeeStinger

The first Three are Microsoft products and can completely remove. Windows defender will be present in all Microsoft operating system by default .it will be turned off.

Please share your experience in the comments below.

Applies to: SharePoint Server 2013 and Windows 8.1.

SharePoint Server 2013 client machine is infected with CTB locker virus.

2015-01-03T04:21:00.000+05:30

Issue: System Restore failed while restoring Windows 8.1 after infected by Virus.

Background: My windows 8.1 client machine for SharePoint server 2013 was infected by a Virus called CTB locker virus.

More details for the virus can be found here: http://securelist.com/analysis/publications/64608/a-new-generation-of-ransomware.

My machine was very slow and when I tried to do anything such as open the SharePoint sites form 8.1 client machine.

I was not sure how my client was infected, AV virus was installed and fully updated. *Still it’s a point of question, will come it later, right now let’s discus about the restore issue, that how did I recovered my machine.

All system and configuration files were fully decrypted and damaged.

Every time you tried to restart the machine, all the Memory was occupied by an unknown program i.e. Eamnraem Vireti Dtudaa 2021. (Not sure what it was).

In all I can my machine was totally screwed and even after all possible way of removing the machine to remove the software I had only one choice to restore it from last known system restore.

My fate, was not good though, both my system restore was damaged and thrown below error:

Errors:

System Restore dialed to extract the file. The restore point was damaged or was deleted during restore

Another error message from another restore point was:

System Restore failed while copying the registry from restore point.

An unspecified error occurred during System Restore, (0x80070571).

Troubleshooting:

I did tried to remove the virus using the malware bytes and some other online software, but there was no go.

Updated Antivirus and then scan with that, but Virus has infected AV also.

Tried to boot the machine in safe mode and then tried restore, same issue.

Tried to recover the machine form 'Repair your Computer’ no luck.

Tried luck with the steps given in the http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2695585, no luck.

By reading in some forums online, I found, Automatic Updates will delete all Restore Points (which means that you cannot go back if the update goes bad . . .). Perhaps one of those updates corrupted our restore points.

Reference: http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_7-system/system-restore-failed-to-extract-the-filethe/b5dedb2f-2e3b-449a-896f-d5887d91f04b

Which is anyways was very disappointing.

The above forum has also outlined restoring registry manually, which I did not prefer.

Tried running Run sfc /scannow and chkdsk /f /r as outlined in the here:

http://www.thewindowsclub.com/system-restore-not-working-windows, but again no luck.

Resolution:

Finally I gave up and had to rebuild my machine to the current version with fresh install from Windows 8.1 set-up.

You can also install from any previous system image if you have one.

My machine is working like a charm now.

On the recovering you files and stopping this virus to spread, my research s still ongoing. I will keep you posted on the findings.

If you have any suggestions to prevent this from future, please drop comments in the comment box below.

Applied to: Windows 8.1, SharePoint server 2013.

Anyone can build a SharePoint App with Microsoft Access: MSDN Channel 9

2015-01-02T03:09:00.000+05:30

Today I was going through some normal reading and bumped in very interesting video posted from SPC2014. Though of worth Sharing.

http://channel9.msdn.com/Events/SharePoint-Conference/2014/SPC204

Applied to: SharePoint Server 2013.

The user profile service failed the logon. The profile cannot be loaded in Windows Server 2012.

2015-01-01T02:37:00.000+05:30

Issue: The user profile service failed the logon. The profile cannot be loaded in Windows Server 2012.

Background: All of sudden when I was trying to log in to my Windows Server 2012 with My Admin account, I get issue with the error message saying.

Error: The user profile service failed the logon. The profile cannot be loaded.

Troubleshooting:

I tried various solutions from the new such as creating new account and copy over the stuff to new account.

Or Go into the Advanced Security Settings (right click on folder > properties > security > ) for the C:\Users\Default folder and checking the box to "Replace all child object permission with inheritable permissions from this object"

One of the KB article for MS says that User Profile Service may start to fail if you install April 2014 updates for Windows 8.1 or Server 2014.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2985344

However, in my case this was not the issue.

Resolution:

I looked for another KB http://support.microsoft.com/kb/947215, from which 3^rd method does worked for me.

Removing SID and recreating the account again.

Please let me know if you have any issues following this.

Products Applied to:

· Windows 8.1

· Windows Server 2012.

How to set the dates of the current monday, wednesday and friday of the current week fo date and time column for a list

2014-12-26T22:01:00.002+05:30

Set the Sunday of current week for date and time column in a list.

Add date and time column for a list Name it as Date

Select "Calculated Value" radio button under Default value section

=1-WEEKDAY(TODAY)+TODAY

whenever u add item to this list in NewForm.aspx
by default Date=dd-mm-yyyy(21-12-2014) i.e sunday of current week

Reference:

http://superuser.com/questions/376698/how-to-get-the-dates-of-the-current-monday-wednesday-and-friday-of-the-current

SharePoint 2010: Making a Column Read-Only in a list using Sharepoint Designer

2014-12-26T21:45:00.001+05:30

Using SharePoint Designer, you can make one of the columns on your list/library Read-Only so that when a user goes to edit the list item, that one particular field will be unmodifyable, even for Full Control Permissions.
This can be done by changing the field type from an “editable” field to a simple “display” field.
To do this, open up SPD and navigate to your list.
You want to create a new “Edit” form for this list so click on the “New…” button:

Type in a name for your new form. Select the “Edit Item Form” radio button and go ahead and make this the default form for editing.

Click OK and then open up your new form to edit the code.

In this particular library, I have a column that I named “Read-Only” which I will be changing to read-only mode in the edit form. To do this, scroll down to the column inside the code and change the following:

<SharePoint:FormField runat="server" id="ff3{$Pos}" ControlMode="Edit" 
FieldName="Read_x002d_Only" __designer:bind="{ddwrt:DataBind('u',
concat('ff3',$Pos),'Value','ValueChanged','ID',ddwrt:EscapeDelims(
string(@ID)),'@Read_x002d_Only')}"/>
<SharePoint:FieldDescription runat="server" id="ff3description{$Pos}" 
FieldName="Read_x002d_Only" ControlMode="Edit"/>

<SharePoint:FormField runat="server" id="ff3{$Pos}" ControlMode="Display"  
FieldName="Read_x002d_Only" __designer:bind="{ddwrt:DataBind('u', 
concat('ff3',$Pos),'Value','ValueChanged','ID',ddwrt:EscapeDelims( 
string(@ID)),'@Read_x002d_Only')}"/> 
<SharePoint:FieldDescription runat="server" id="ff3description{$Pos}"  
FieldName="Read_x002d_Only" ControlMode="Display"/>

Now when you go to edit an item on your form via “Edit Properties”, the column will be read-only.

Reference:

http://sharepoint.indigoreality.com/2013/04/03/sharepoint-2010-making-a-column-read-only/

Q&A with the SharePoint MVP Experts Chat On Oct 29th @1pm EST or 10am PDT

2014-10-25T01:53:00.000+05:30

A note from Melissa Travers
Sr. Community Program Mgr, Community and Online Support

We are launching our SharePoint MVP Expert Chats again! Have questions about SharePoint 2010 or 2013? Or SharePoint Online? Office 365? Please join us October 29th at 1pm EST or 10am PDT where you can have your questions answered live! We will be using the Reddit Ask Me Anything format. This is new to us but many of Microsoft teams are using this medium now. Please create a Reddit account beforehand so you can be ready to ask questions.

More information on the chat and room location will be available on Oct 29th in the SharePoint forum.

Hope you can join us!

https://www.reddit.com/r/sharepoint

Hope you can join us!

MVP Experts Participating:

1. Andrew Connell

2. Cathy Dew

3. Doug Hemminger

4. Doug Ware

5. Eric Shupps

6. Gavin Barron

7. John Ross

8. Kris Wagner

9. Randy Drisgill

10. Sahil Malik

11. Sean McNeill

12. Shane Young

13. Spencer Harbar

14. Todd Bleeker

15. Trevor Seward

16. Wictor Wilen

On Twitter: #SharePoint questions? Get answers live 10/29 @10am PDT from the MVPs https://www.reddit.com/r/sharepoint #sharepointmvpchat #mvpbuzz

Drag Drop not working in SharePoint 2013 with IE8 Installed

2014-10-23T01:39:00.000+05:30

Issue: User reported that drag and drop functionality is not working for the some of the user:

Error: There was no error however, user was not able to see Drag files here option when accessing the SharePoint sites. You can see the difference form the below snap-shots.

IE’s Snap-shot:

Chrome’s Snap-shot

Background: We have a recent upgrade of IE7 to IE8 and after this user started complaining that they can’t user the option to Drag files in SharePoint sites.

Troubleshooting:

Tried it on the server where we have IE 9 installed and its working fine.

Tried to clear IE cache and reset IE settings.

Tried to reset the zone of sites in IE.

Tried to run the SharePoint 2013 site in IE compatibility view.

This is something broken or not available in IE 8 which has broken it.

Tried to look at internet and found MS KE which says this functionally is not available in Chrome or Mozilla https://support.microsoft.com/kb/2761267 and this was true for us as this is by design.

However, our problem was to not having it available at all IE 8.

Resolution:

By checking on the server where it was working fine, I noticed that there is a add-on installed with a very clear name: SharePoint DragUpload Control, which is actually allowing IE to work with this functionality.

Checked on Installed IE 8 add-on list and found that ad on STSUpld UloadCtl Class add-on was already enabled.

This adds on is supported by STSUPLD.DLL and is available at location C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office12.

One article says this functionality doesn’t come with IE 8 or IE 9 by default; you need to have SharePoint DragUpload Control installed. Or installing Office 2013 or SharePoint 2013 does the same job for you.

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/odabasi/archive/2013/04/16/sharepoint-2013-document-%20library-drag-amp-drop-feature-requirements.aspx

Since we don’t have any plan to upgrade Office as of now and SharePoint Designer 2013 is blocked

There was another Option which MS KB http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2901074 suggested upgrading to compatibles browser or Office package would resolve the issue, since we don’t have that option, so what next.

Well looking at many options it says that we have to have Office 2013 or SharePoint Designer 2013 installed to user this very popular functionality of SharePoint 2013.

Reference:

http://blogs.realdolmen.com/experts/2013/03/21/drag-and-drop-files-into-a-sharepoint-2013-document-library-depends-on-installed-browser-and-office-version/

http://www.sharepointdiary.com/2014/04/sharepoint-2013-drag-and-drop-upload-not-working.html

Plan you browse for SharePoint 2013: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc263526(v=office.15).aspx

Applies to: SharePoint server 2013, IE8, IE 9, IE 10, Office 2013, SharePoint Designer 2013.

October 2014 Cumulative updates: SharePoint Server

2014-10-21T23:27:00.002+05:30

October Cumulative updates are release for both SharePoint 2010 and SharePoint 2013.

SharePoint 2010:

SharePoint Foundation 2010:
SharePoint Server 2010: KB 2899490
Download SharePoint Server 2010 October 2014 CU: 2899490

Note: This CU includes all SharePoint 2010 fixes released since SP1. The CU does not include SP2 and no fixes released in October CU

SharePoint 2013:

KB 2889946 - SharePoint Foundation 2013 October 2014 CU
KB 2899469, KB 2880962, KB 2880485 - SharePoint Server 2013 October 2014 CU
KB 2752098 - Fix for SharePoint 2013 Indexing Connector for Documentum (if installed)
KB 2889898 - Office Web Apps Server 2013 October 2014 CU
Download SharePoint Foundation 2013 October 2014 CU: 2889946
Download SharePoint Server 2013 October 2014 CU: 2899469, 2880962, 2880485
Download SharePoint 2013 Indexing Connector for Documentum October 2014 CU: 2752098
Download Office Web Apps Server 2013 October 2014 CU: 2889898

Note: After installing the fixes you need to run the SharePoint 2013 Products Configuration Wizard on each machine in the farm

Applies to: SharePoint Server 2010 and SharePoint Server 2013.

Error: "A web analytic report is not available for this site. Usage processing may be disabled on this server or the usage data for this site has not been processed yet : SharePoint 2013

2014-10-21T00:04:00.000+05:30

Issue: When you click on Site Actions and then Site Web analytics Reports, you get error message.

Error: A web analytics report is not available for this site. Usage processing may be disabled on this server or the usage data for this site has not been processed yet.

Back ground:
Any site in the SharePoint environment is having issue and every single site we are getting this issue. Usage and Health data collection Service is provisioned fine.

Troubleshooting:
Checked errors on the SharePoint servers, nothing reported.
Checked on the Logs nothing reported.
Enabled Reporting feature on Site collection Admin feature list, nothing worked.

Note: enabling “Reporting” Site Collection Feature the Site Settings > Site Web Analytics link will disappears and will replaced elsewhere with Popularity Trends (under Site Administration).

Resolution:

While looking at the wide audience, I get to know that Web Analytics is discontinued from the SharePoint 2013.

Due to less than optimal performance running service at scale in large enterprises, web analytics has been discontinued and is not available in SharePoint 2013. Having said that, you can still view some analytics capabilities for e.g. Most Popular Items, Popularity Trends.. report for a specific item/site/sitecollection level

Reference: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/chandru/archive/2013/08/31/sharepoint-2013-web-analytics-report-where-is-it.aspx

If you have any thoughts on this please drop in the comments.

Applies to: SharePoint Server 2013.

Folder to exclude from the SharePoint Antivirus Scanning: SharePoint 2013

2014-10-17T22:12:00.000+05:30

While working on some of the Antivirus Issue and revisiting the AV configuration in each of the SharePoint platform seen many system and log folder also being scanned by AV deployed on SharePoint servers.

MS had published a very useful KB article which gives you information and listing all those servers which can be excluded form the AV scanning on your SharePoint environment.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/952167

Though of Sharing with all you guys…!

WMI: Windows Management Instrumentation

2014-10-15T21:57:00.000+05:30

I was given a task to compare the latest software installed on mane server. Looking at the task though it sounds very simple that we can compare the list form Control panel and add remove programs.

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc776518(v=ws.10).aspx

However, it involves many hours job when it comes to servers. I came across the term WMI which gives you extended functionality to extract such reports.

First of all its important o know about what is WMI: Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) is the infrastructure for management data and operations on Windows-based operating systems. You can write WMI scripts or applications to automate administrative tasks on remote computers but WMI also supplies management data to other parts of the operating system and products, for example System Center Operations Manager, formerly Microsoft Operations Manager (MOM), or Windows Remote Management (WinRM).

Courtesy: msdn.microsoft.com

You can use WMI from client applications and scripts. It provides an infrastructure that makes it easy to both discover and perform management tasks. In addition, you can add to the set of possible management tasks by creating your own WMI providers.

Courtesy: msdn.microsoft.com

Extracting the information of all updates and hotfixes from command promot:

wmic qfe list brief /format:htable > "%USERPROFILE%\hotfix.html"

This produces a nicely formatted list in an HTML file named hotfix.html that gets placed in the User folder.

Reference:

http://social.technet.microsoft.com/wiki/contents/articles/4197.how-to-list-all-of-the-windows-and-software-updates-applied-to-a-computer.aspx

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa394582(v=vs.85).aspx

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa393964(v=vs.85).aspx

Applies to: SharePoint Server 2010, Windows Server 2008.

Forefront Identity Manager Stops after servers are rebooted: SharePoint 2010

2014-10-13T21:53:00.000+05:30

Issue: FIM synchronization services in our one of the SharePoint environment stops or doesn’t start every time our servers are patched and rebooted.

Error: We have many loges reported in event viewer of the servers. Event ID 3, Event ID 6324, Event ID 3760

Log Name: Application

Source: Forefront Identity Manager

Date: 29/06/2014 03:16:04

Event ID: 3

Task Category: None

Level: Error

Keywords: Classic

User: N/A

Computer: Server Name.

Description:

The TryGetSetting function in SettingsProvider.dll returned an empty set of supported parameters for property, SQLConnectionString.

Event Xml:

http://schemas.microsoft.com/win/2004/08/events/event

0x80000000000000

1469029

Application

Server Name

The TryGetSetting function in SettingsProvider.dll returned an empty set of supported parameters for property, SQLConnectionString.

Log Name: Application

Source: FIMSynchronizationService

Date: 29/06/2014 03:18:05

Event ID: 6324

Task Category: Server

Level: Error

Keywords: Classic

User: N/A

Computer: Server Name.

Description:

The server encountered an unexpected error and stopped.

Log Name: Application

Source: Microsoft-SharePoint Products-SharePoint Foundation

Date: 29/06/2014 03:18:38

Event ID: 3760

Task Category: Database

Level: Critical

Keywords:

User: Farm account.

Computer: Server Name.

Description:

SQL Database ‘DB Name; on SQL Server instance ‘SQL Server Instances Name,14331' not found. Additional error information from SQL Server is included below.

Cannot open database "DB Name" requested by the login. The login failed.

Login failed for user ‘Farm account name’.

Troubleshooting:

There are different approaches towards troubleshooting this issue as reason for its occurrence is unknown.

Resolution:

Different people had suggested different things:

First:

Such as adding service account into three groups on local machine:
FIMSyncOperator, FIMSyncJoiners and FIMSyncBrowse and errors should go.

Second:

FIM Sync service should start before FIM service. However it may not be happening. Currently the service is set to Automatic and can be changing it Automatic (Delayed Start).

We could deploy a script which will check for the service every 60 seconds, and if it is not running, sends an email to the administrator

while ((Get-Service "FIM").status -eq "Running")
{Start-Sleep -Seconds 60}
Send-MailMessage -From FIM@ps.local -To admin@ps.local -Body "FIM Stopped" -SmtpServer server1

Alternatively, you can put a .cmd file in your Recovery Tab of the service, and use the following command: Powershell Send-MailMessage

Third:

In our case we had also found there were several SQL related error and in further investigation we found that server hosting FIM service were rebooted before the SQL server and once the SQL servers were re-booted FIM services always failed to find it reference to connect to SQL.

Rebooting SQL servers after server hosting FIM services had let FIM sync Services in Start state and resolved our issue.

Applies to: SharePoint server 2010, Windows Server 2008, Fore front Identity manager.

The file exists. (Exception from HRESULT: 0x80070050): Adding users to SharePoint

2014-10-10T21:48:00.000+05:30

Issue: When adding a user to the site we are getting error The file exists.

Error: The file exists. (Exception from HRESULT: 0x80070050)

Background: We had some users migrated from one domain to another and this is an issue with one of those users.

Site admin confirmed that user is migrated correctly and getting above error once adding user to the site.

Troubleshooting:

We tried to add the user from our side and we were also getting the issue.

Tried to add the user on another side and was having the issue.

Checked in Active directory if user had valid account created.

Checked in User profile if user account entry exists.

Able to find the user in People picker and working fine.

The moment we click Ok, we get the error message.

Tried to delete the user site using PowerShell and re-added him, did not help.

Resolution:

It seems to be an orphan entry of the user old account exist on the site

Started looking at content DB with SQL queries.

select s.Id, w.FullUrl from Sites s inner join Webs w on

s.RootWebId = w.Id

select * from UserInfo where tp_Login='domain\username' and

tp_SiteID=''

Deleted user entry form UserInfo table in SP content db.

delete from UserInfo where tp_Login= 'domain\login'

Create account again using standard SP actions or just login to portal using this account. It did helped to resolve the issue.

Alternative approach can also be acquired to clear the user SID history.

http://blogs.technet.com/b/ashleymcglone/archive/2011/11/23/how-to-remove-sid-history-with-powershell.aspx

Applies to: SharePoint server 2010, Windows Server 2008.

IIS Admin Service service terminated with service-specific error 2148073478 (0x80090006): SharePoint Server 2010.

2014-10-08T21:44:00.000+05:30

Issue: When we tried to open a SharePoint web app, we get error message Page cannot be displayed.

Error: In event ID we have seen error message:

IIS Admin Service service terminated with service-specific error 2148073478 (0x80090006)

Background: We had seen event ID 6482 in one of SharePoint servers which is saying that SSL certificate on one of web application has expired. Though we had not used SSL in any of our SharePoint webapp, but still we were getting SSL error message.

MS had suggested to work based on the KB http://support.microsoft.com/kb/962928 and renew self SSL on the web application; however this didn’t resolve the issue.

MS had suggested to follow the steps in another KB http://support.microsoft.com/kb/908572 to give Local Administrator rights to admin account at location \Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Microsoft\Crypto\RSA as Renew Self SSL were failing.

This did fix the issue of Event ID 6482 to fire in the event viewer but did lead to another issue which is point of discussion in this article.

We have seen after testing this fix what MS had suggested, it did break our testing and preproduction environment where were not able to start IIS service and getting the above error message.

Resolution:

To fix this issue and have IIS admin service running again was also challenging.

Based on one of steps to fix this issue MS has suggested to rename the MachineKeys folder at location \Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Microsoft\Crypto\RSA\MachineKeys based on the KB https://support.microsoft.com/kb/908572.

It did fixed the issue however, when testing servers were rebooted (as a part of patching) the IIS Metabase was corrupt resulting in IIS Admin service did not start and all web application were inaccessible.

Anticipating this could result in serious issues to Production environment, we decided to take production servers out of patching schedule and re-opened the case with MS informing them the issue we are facing after the fix was implemented to resolve first problem.

We restored the old MachineKeys folder by renaming it to original name and deleted the newly created MachineKeys folder first in testing platforms.

During the testing in root to live we spotted that there were two services (Cryptographic Services and syslog-ng Agent Service) which were automatically creating the MachineKeys folder and was not letting us rename it.

Stopping these services allowed us to rename the MachineKeys folder and we were able to start IIS Admin and World Wide Web Publishing services in sys-test and Pre-production platforms.

Implemented the same steps in production servers, rebooted each server one at a time to check if any issues occurred post fix.

There was no disruption to the service and IIS web applications are working fine.

Reference: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/saurabh_singh/archive/2007/08/02/iisadmin-startup-issues.aspx

Applies to: SharePoint server 2010 and Windows Server 2008, IIS 7.

Unable to run audit Reports- .XML file opens as blank page : SharePoint 2010.

2014-10-06T21:35:00.000+05:30

Issue: Whenever a user clicks on a Audit report on his SharePoint site, it brings back a blank page.

Error: There is no error as such, however, audit log reports opens as blank page in any browser.

Background: We had started facing this issue when user has reported that the issue is happening on one site. We started investigating from that side only. However, when we had explored this is wider issue and affecting multiple sites.

This was not the end point this issue was affecting other platforms also.

This issue was reported on multiple sites where when running audit logs reports opens as a blank page.

This issue was initially reported for one of the site and then we checked on other sites it has the same behavior.

Troubleshooting:

As an initial investigation checked by disabling AV scan on our testing servers and Production severs but it came as clear.

As this issue was wide, to isolate it concentrated on one test environment where one server was working and other was not!

Compared,

IE settings on servers, clearing cache and resetting IE settings did not work.
IIS settings on both server and they were intact.
Settings on compat.browser file, which controls the behaviour of the IIS web applications when requested over http in IE at location D:\IISWebSites\wss\VirtualDirectories\\App_Browsers\compat.browser.
/_layouts/RunReport.aspx file content and no difference found.
Web.config files and \12 hive folder settings, no difference found.

Have tried to trace the behaviour of the request via Fiddler and nothing found.

Compared to open the pages in different browser, IE, Chrome and Firefox.

It looked liked to be an issue with the way .xml file is parsed from IE.

Resolution:

Opened a case with MS and they had asked to confirm if http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2894844 orhttp://support2.microsoft.com/kb/2905247 KB is installed on any of the servers.

There were no entries of this KB on any of the servers.

Started comparing the Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0 Service Pack 2 updated on both of the servers. Assuming the issue has started in June, 14 month, started looking at the updates installed after May, 14.

On one test server (working one), last update ran on 31st Jan, 14, however on server non-working, last update ran on 16 May, 14 and the KB number installed was KB2894843 and we had KB2972214 installed on 12 Sept, 14.

Thinking and agreeing with MS eng. that KB2972214 installed on 12 Sept, 14 must had not caused the issue because the issue was there before 12 Sept, 14.

Targeted the KB2894843 installed on 16 May, 14 and uninstalled it from the server non-working sever.

Tried to browse the Audit log and it did work fine.

Note: This KB is near in the number, where MS has asked to check if any of the

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2894844 or http://support2.microsoft.com/kb/2905247, we had installed on the servers and answer was no.

Installed KB2894843 on the working server and it did break the audit logs and started coming as blank page.

Uninstalling the KB2894843 again from working server, had fixed the issue again.

With these entire tests we confirmed that http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2894843 had created the issue.

MS has confirmed that this is recent issue they were reported with by other clients as well and root cause of the issue is still un-known.

They had requested if we can uninstall the KB from all the affected servers as they have no plans to introduce any Hot-fix for this KB in near future.

Applies to: SharePoint Server 2010, Windows 2003 Server, .Net Frame Work 2.0.

‘Unable to upload the Multiple Document’ in SharePoint 2013: Solution is here.

2014-10-03T01:38:00.005+05:30

Issue: When you try to upload multiple document option in SharePoint 2013, the option is not available to you.

Error: There is no error message in specific, however when you try to find the option to upload multiple documents in a Library it’s not available.

Environment: Windows 8, SharePoint Server 2013, Office 2010.

Background: As a new upgrade in the company, user trying to play around the SharePoint 2013 and trying to get used to it. Based on the general queries of the users it had become a good practice to learn about the new features of the product.

A user has asked that we don’t see any option to Upload Multiple Documents in SharePoint 2013 which I know is deprecated in SharePoint Server 2013 based on the MS KB:

https://support2.microsoft.com/kb/2761257.

Resolution:

User has to use the option of drag and drop the document from Windows folder to SharePoint Library, which basically works as a charm if you have good configuration.

User can use the Explorer view in SharePoint 2013 document library.

However, being a SharePoint Admin, I was thinking to move a bit ahead with my search, where I know people these days are not satisfy with out of the box features and there have been techies doing regular research and messing around with giant product.

I came across a SharePoint Add on, which give this functionality and when deployed in your farm, enables the option to Upload Multiple Documents.

You can read about it specification here: http://www.sharepointadd-ons.com/sharepoint-2013-multiple-file-uploader.

But, Wait…..! It’s not free, there is $ 199 cost associated with it.

I think it’s a good option for those who are missing the capability to Upload Multiple Documents from SharePoint 2007 and SharePoint Server 2010, but looking at cost I would live my life with Explorer View and Drag-Drop Option.

Choice is yours …..!

Applies to: SharePoint Server 2013, Office 2010.

Windows 9 or Windows 10: Sneak Peak.

2014-10-02T02:39:00.001+05:30

There have been allot many publications on Windows 9 where is was expected reveal many undisputed features of Windows 9 than its predecessors 8 or 8.1.

I though provoking thing is why MS has said its Windows 10 not 9. There are many rumours that MS think number 9 brings bad luck to them, but when asked premier launch of Windows 10s name, Windows chief Terry Myerson and Joe Belfiore avoided a straight answer, instead they joked about how “seven ate nine” and then said how the “breadth of the product family” justifies the grandiose name. So, really, why did Microsoft call it Windows 10 instead of Windows 9?

There’s also the odd fact that the name of each Windows release doesn’t actually match the real version number; for example, Windows 8.1 is actually version 6.3 of Windows. Windows 10 is version 6.4. The last time the release name actually matched the version number was Windows NT 4.0, which was released back in 1996. Windows 2000, which was called NT 5.0 during development, was actually version 5.0. Windows XP was version 5.1. Windows Vista was 6.0, Windows 7 was 6.1, Windows 8 was 6.2, and Windows 8.1 is version 6.3.

Actually, modern versions of Windows are still based on the Vista kernel/code base — including Windows 10, which is actually Windows 6.4.

You can confirm this by pressing Windows key and then R on your computer.

It always goes by names, in saying that, MS tried to analogous it with more common name as Windows One (would have made more sense) based One Drive, One Note. Wicked part is that MS has already launched Windows 1, when I think even I had not started picking the computers. So I had made more sense to call it Windows 10.

The Best news is it would be free for the user who are on Windows 8 or 8.1 J I am lucky chap.

More Talks are at:

Windows 10 is the official name for Microsoft's next version of Windows: http://www.theverge.com/2014/9/30/6868695/microsoft-windows-10-announced-official

Windows 9 Technical Preview spotted, may be called TH:

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/tech/tech-news/Windows-9-Technical-Preview-spotted-may-be-called-TH/articleshow/43895828.cms

Windows 10 event: Live blog, updates, start time and more from Microsoft's announcement

http://www.theverge.com/2014/9/30/6872387/microsoft-windows-10-announcement-event-live-blog-start-time

Windows 9 to be a free upgrade for Windows 8 users

http://news.yahoo.com/confirmed-windows-9-free-upgrade-windows-8-users-133033409.html

Internet explorer settings for Office 365

2014-09-22T00:05:00.000+05:30

Follow the below settings if outlook is not connecting once mailbox is migrated to Office 365.

If Option 1 is not working please follow Options 2.

Option 1:

 Open Internet explorer  Go to Tools  Internet Options  Connections  LAN Settings

 Enable on Automatic Detect settings.

Option 2:

 Open Internet explorer  Go to Tools  Internet Options  Connections  LAN Settings

 Enable the proxy & enter the location proxy  Enable the Bypass proxy  Click on Advanced

 under exceptions, add the below address  Click OK.

outlook.office365.com;

Applies to: Office 365, IE 10, IE 11.