Troubleshooting the SharePoint “File not found” Error

April 13th, 2009 Published by Milshark
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Have you ever come across a “File Not Found” error when accessing some part of your WSS 3.0 or MOSS 2007 portal? So have I. There are some modifications that the farm administrator can make to the web application’s web.config file to show more information about the error.

Follow these steps:

  1. Navigate Here:
    C:\inetpub\wwroot\wss\Virtual Directories\<your web app's virtual directory>
    1. You can also open IIS
    2. Expand Sites
    3. Right click on your SharePoint site
    4. Choose explore
    5. proceed to step 2
  2. Copy and paste the web.config file (making a backup)
  3. Open web.config using notepad
  4. Search for “CallStack” , set this equal to true
  5. Search for “Custom”, set the customerrors = “Off”
  6. Save the web.config file and refresh your page in the browser

You should now see what the error actually is. Many times it is a web part assembly reference missing from the web.config or something similar.

This should at least give you a more precise troubleshooting starting point. Remember to turn CustomErrors back “On” in the web.config after fixing the issue so that your end users won’t see an ugly Asp.Net error if this happens again.

Thanks for reading and stay tuned for more Sharepoint Tidbits from the Trenches.

Published by Milshark in SharePoint, SharePoint Server, Web Development | Monday, April 13, 2009
Tags: , , , , , , , Milshark, Andy Milsark

 
  1. Cody
    May 28th, 2009 at 05:07 | #1
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    Thanks man!! you saved my day..

  2. Frank
    June 3rd, 2009 at 06:48 | #2
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    Sorry. I get “File not found” and “Unable to connect to database. Check database connection information and make sure the database server is running. ”

    My lack of expertise, I could not find even the basic first step — C:\inetpub\wwroot\wss\Virtual Directories\

    Still lost in errors and non-responsive servers.

  3. Andy M G
    June 14th, 2009 at 11:04 | #3
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    @Frank
    Hi Frank,

    Chances are that your SQL windows service is not started. There were a number of SQL security updates which went out recently as windows updates. Some of these failed to restart the SQL Service. Whenever you see this it is most likely that the SQL service on the server that runs your config and/or content database is stopped. Just start the service mssql.exe in your services.msc snap in and try to browse to the Sharepoint site again.

  4. Tahir
    June 18th, 2009 at 21:35 | #4
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    Its 2:05 AM and everything is almost ready on the server for the demo suddenly we came across this stupid error “File Not Found”.

    Thank you so much for posting this debugging technique. It truly saved our demo.

  5. Rajendrakumar
    July 10th, 2009 at 14:41 | #5
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    Hi,

    I’ve got a ‘File not found’ error. I can try the suggestion on the above on the live server but perhaps you know the problem with my scenario anyway;

    We have WSS 3.0 running on Windows 2003 Server with Forms-Based Authentication. It has been running for months but now if I now try selecting ‘Register’ or ‘Forgot password’ I now get a ‘File not found’ error (looking for https://www…..uk/_layouts/useradmin/register.aspx and https://www…..org.uk/_layouts/useradmin/retrieve-password.aspx respectively)

    I believe that it is related to the .NET 3.5 Family service pack as I’ve been able to ‘break’ and old image of the server before it was patched. Patching it with the .NET 3.5 service pack gets the ‘File not found’ result that we’re now experiencing.

    I HAVE tried rolling back the service pack for .NET but it does not resolve the problem. Taking off too many service packs related to .NET breaks the website completely and putting them back on again does not recover it either.

    Any help GREATlY appreciated :o )

  6. Andy M
    July 24th, 2009 at 17:20 | #6
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    @Rajendrakumar
    One major work around that is required after the .Net Framework 3.5 SP1 is installed for search and local site browsing on the server is the DisableLoopbackCheck registry key. Google sharepoint DisableLoopbackCheck. Also are those aspx files stored on the file system or in the Content DB? If on the file system, make sure they are still there.

  7. Daniel
    November 23rd, 2009 at 16:36 | #7
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    I ran into this issue after connecting to our SharePoint site using SharePoint Designer 2007. It first created a few folders that needed to be deleted in order for the site to even work. Then I noticed this error “File Not Found.” and after following the steps above it just worked. Not sure exactly why, but changing the web.config file must cause the assemblies to refresh and it just worked. Thanks for the info!

  8. Search file
    December 18th, 2009 at 15:16 | #8
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    Great post i liked it!

  1. April 16th, 2009 at 17:19 | #1
    Links (4/16/2009) « Steve Pietrek – Everything SharePoint and Office