Troubleshooting the SharePoint “File not found” Error
April 13th, 2009
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:
- Navigate Here:
C:\inetpub\wwroot\wss\Virtual Directories\<your web app's virtual directory>- You can also open IIS
- Expand Sites
- Right click on your SharePoint site
- Choose explore
- proceed to step 2
- Copy and paste the web.config file (making a backup)
- Open web.config using notepad
- Search for “CallStack” , set this equal to true
- Search for “Custom”, set the customerrors = “Off”
- 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.
Thanks man!! you saved my day..
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.
@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.
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.
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
)
@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.
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!
Great post i liked it!
Thank you, helped me lots!
Hi.
Thanks for time and I would like to ask you something.
I got ProjectServer 2007 and when users try to upload a file, occurs the same that you described…but when we refresh the page, the file appears there in library project. I follow the steps that you say and the error was very clear, it is trying to connect to a “OLD” server. Our intranet server fails and I had to restore the SharePoint and Project Server Databases in a new installed server. can you help me with this, or some idea.
I need to edit everithyng in SharePoint/Project Server from “OLD” to “NEW” server URL.
Note: this only occurs on Project Server, not in SharePoint.
Thanks a lot for any help.
(sorry my English)
Hello everyone. I have a problem with WSS 3.0 I just selected Negotiate (Kerberos) from (Central Administration > Application Management > Authentication Providers > Edit Authentication). But now I’ve just got error message. When I enter to site it shows white screen and.
Back
Error
File Not Found
Troubleshoot issues with Windows SharePoint Services.
Above message received. What is this? Please help. me What should I do now?
Fantastic blog post, I will save this post in my Del.icio.us account. Have a great evening.
i have the same issue, i am trying to restore a database of a sharepoint site from other server,but while browsing it gives me error “file not fount”. when checked in detail i the error was “The system cannot find the path specified. (Exception from HRESULT: 0×80070003) ”
can anyone help me to resolve this
Nice post, saved my hours…
This helped me alot…thanks
Thanks a lot .
Saved lot of time. i was really clueless bout what to do.
Thanks again