(2019-02-07) People Picker Error In Sharepoint 2013

From time to time I fully update my test/demo environment to make sure all the installed stuff uses the latest available features for those versions. And yes, I’m still running some old versions because I need the basic functionality for some things to work and do not need the latest and greatest. Because I’m still running everything on a server on-premises, yes those people still exist, I need to careful will the latest and greatest apps behaving as resource hogs. And that’s why I’m still running Sharepoint Foundation 2013. At the same time while updating I some times also try out stuff just to see if things are still working. This blog is basically more about archiving this piece of information from my brain the next time it happens so I do not forget it.

This time, even as a Site Collection administrator, I was not able to navigate to the site or assign permissions to some AD group or user.

In the first case, I saw the error “Sorry, You Don’t Have Access To This Page”. For me that was quite surprising as by default Site Collection admin have Full Control.

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Figure 1: Error “Sorry, You Don’t Have Access To This Page”

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Browsing to the settings page to assign permissions, using a direct URL (“https://<FQDN>:<PORT>/_layouts/15/settings.aspx”)as navigation was not possible. While trying to assign permissions to a group, the group could not be resolved and it showed the error “Sorry, We’re Having Trouble Reaching The Server”

Figure 2: Error “Sorry, We’re Having Trouble Reaching The Server” While Resolving A Security Principal

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I googled around and noticed I was not the only one having this issue. After trying a number of solutions, the only solution that really worked for me was extending the web application and when done unextending it again.

To extend a web application:

• On the Sharepoint Server start a browser and navigate to the Central Administration site
• On the Central Administration site in the Application Management section  click “Manage Web Applications”
• Select the web application that is not working due to the errors above and in the ribbon click “Extend”
• Make sure the option “Create A New IIS Web Site” is selected
• Check all the other settings and see if those do not conflict with any other web application on the same box, and when OK click “OK” at the bottom
• After letting the system finish the extension of the web application, try to assign permissions again

…and if correct you should now be able to resolve security principals from AD.

Figure 3: Resolving A Security Principal From AD Now Does Work

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After confirming, it is working again, you can UNextend the web application again.

To UNextend a web application:

• On the Sharepoint Server start a browser and navigate to the Central Administration site
• On the Central Administration site in the Application Management section  click “Manage Web Applications”
• Select the web application that was previously extended for which you want to delete the extension
• On the ribbon, just below the “Extend” button click on the tiny arrow and select “Remove Sharepoint from IIS Web Site”
• Select the correct extension to delete
• Make sure to delete the IIS Web Site too

You should be good now. At least I was!

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Cheers,
Jorge

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