The server was unable to save the form at this time.

I know, that must be one of the most unusual titles for a blog post, but that is all I had to go on when trying to sort out my issue.

So this is my scenario, I've got a SharePoint 2013 site collection. In the root site I've got a Library with unique permissions (broken away permissions). The user who needs access to contribute to the library does not have any permissions in the root site (Site Collection).
In the library we have a managed metadata field, and this is where the problem lies. The user is able to upload and fill in all the fields; date fields, choice fields and all the rest, even make an item selection from the managed metadata field. So reading and selecting a managed metadata field is not an issue. But when the form is saved, an error message appears at the bottom of the form.

The server was unable to save the form at this time. Please try again.

The file gets uploaded and all fields except the MM gets saved, it remains empty.

So lets go ask Google. Some of the info I found said the following.

• Server running low on memory, do a IIS reset. My memory usage was fine!
• Extend the existing site to a new web site. What, no ways!
• Enable anonymous authentication in IIS. Yes, seems this is enable by default.
• Uninstall Free Download Manager on client. Owe my word!

So there were quite a few possible reasons, but none of them related to me and I knew it had something to do with the Managed Metadata field. Turns out that in SharePoint 2013, in the Site Collections features list there is a feature called "Limited-access user permission lockdown mode".

Deactivating it sorted out my issue! Hope this will helps someone else.

SharePoint Designer Workflow Failed to Start - Cancelled by System Account

So out of the blue some of our existing and newly created workflows created in SharePoint Designer started giving us the following error message, Workflow failed to start and it was cancelled by System. It was only happening in some sites, not all.

Thanks once again to the power of Google and the SharePoint community I found a blog written by Manoj, outlining my exact issue.

Basically whats happening is that once you publish your workflow thru SharePoint Designer, it is not checking in the following two workflow related files in the hidden Workflows library (green ticked). Trying to right click and check in, gives an error message.



 

The fix entails a right click on the Workflows library, selecting properties and then from the properties page, select the Administration Web Page button in the toolbar.





You should now be seeing the Document Library Setting page for the Workflows library. In the columns section make sure that none are marked as required. In my case the Title field was, making it optional allows the SharePoint Designer to successfully check in the files when published.












I'm still stumped as to why this is occurring, and why only certain sites are affected. Any light around this issue would be much appreciated.

Site collection with no associated content db

SharePoint 2013 presented me with another challenge today whereby I was unable to deleted a site collection through Central Admin or by using Remove-SPSite. Prior to the problem all I had done was provision a new content DB using PowerShell and and tried to create a new site collection using this new DB also using PowerShell. During the process it failed because of DB permissions.

In Central Admin the site collection was visible, but there was no DB associated and the button to delete was not active. Remove-SPSite just returned the following.
remove-spsite : <nativehr>0x80070003</nativehr><nativestack></nativestack>

A quick Google search quickly confirmed I was not the only one who had run into this issue. The quick and easy PowerShell solution is as follows:

$site = Get-SPSite http://siteurl
$siteId = $site.Id
$siteDatabase = $site.ContentDatabase 
$siteDatabase.ForceDeleteSite($siteId, $false, $false)

References: 
http://blog.claudiobrotto.com/2013/deleting-a-site-collection-that-cannot-be-deleted/
https://peterheibrink.wordpress.com/2014/08/21/forcefully-delete-site-collection/
https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh323680(v=office.15).aspx?tduid=(ef781dacba28e2781c4bdf3ffd2cba40)(256380)(2459594)(TnL5HPStwNw-s7STYp2zFC.xMbOlk5rlOA)()

New-SPWeb : Access is denied

Ran into an interesting one recently. While trying to create a new site in my 2013 site collection, I got the following error message:

PS C:\Windows\system32> New-SPWeb http://intranet/communities/eim/MD -Template "CMSPUBLISHING#0" -Name "Master Data"

New-SPWeb : Access is denied. (Exception from HRESULT: 0x80070005 (E_ACCESSDENIED))

At line:1 char:1

+ New-SPWeb http://intranet/communities/eim/MD -Template "CMSPUBLISHING#0" -Nam ...

+ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    + CategoryInfo          : InvalidData: (Microsoft.Share....SPCmdletNewWeb:SPCmdletNewWeb) [New-SPWeb], UnauthorizedAccessException

    + FullyQualifiedErrorId : Microsoft.SharePoint.PowerShell.SPCmdletNewWeb

Turned to Google and found that I needed to add the user account executing the code, in my case the farm setup account, to the site collection admin group. Strange, because I used the same script previously on a 2010 site collection without the user being in the site collection admin group.

Ping back: http://dirty-dot.blogspot.co.za/2012/04/i-ran-into-another-odd-problem-with-my.html

Create a new Search Service Application in SharePoint 2013 using PowerShell

Distributed Cache link resources

Just a few useful links I found regarding Distributed Cache in SharePoint 2013

Manage the Distributed Cache service in SharePoint Server 2013https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/jj219613.aspx

Repopulating the Newsfeed Cache after a Server Restart
http://steve.thelineberrys.com/2013/11/

The Five Minute Cheat-Sheet on SharePoint 2013′s Distributed Cache Service
http://blog.idera.com/sharepoint/the-five-minute-cheat-sheet-on-sharepoint-2013s-distributed-cache-service/

SharePoint 2013 Newsfeeds not working
https://jerryyasir.wordpress.com/2013/10/19/sharepoint-2013-newsfeeds-not-working-microsoft-office-server-microfeed-microfeedexception/

The operation failed because the server could not access the distributed cache, Sharepoint 2013
https://dayansameera.wordpress.com/2013/09/03/the-operation-failed-because-the-server-could-not-access-the-distributed-cache-sharepoint-2013/

Using PowerShell to Manage the Distributed Cache in SharePoint 2013
http://almondlabs.com/blog/manage-the-distributed-cache/

Tips and Tricks from the Field on the new Distributed Cache Service in SharePoint 2013
http://blogs.technet.com/b/mspfe/archive/2013/12/11/tips-and-tricks-from-the-field-on-the-new-distributed-cache-service-in-sharepoint-2013.aspx

SharePoint 2013 MySite Newsfeed displays "There was a problem retrieving the latest activity. Please try again later"
http://blogs.blackmarble.co.uk/blogs/adawson/post/2012/10/30/SharePoint-2013-MySite-Newsfeed-displays-There-was-a-problem-retrieving-the-latest-activity-Please-try-again-later.aspx

Following of Content not working

So after setting up a SharePoint 2013 environment that consisted of two web apps, one for collaboration, the other for the my sites, it seemed the Following of Content was broken. Kept on getting an error message that stated "InternalError : Could not follow the item ..."

I used separate application pools using different accounts. When I followed content in my own personal sites the Following of Content worked, but kept on getting an error when Following Content in the collaboration site. I was unable to find any related errors in the ULS.

Could not find a conclusive answer after googling, but it seemed to be db permission related.

Solution

In SQL I added the application pool account that was being used by the collaboration site to the MySite content db and gave it SPDataAccess permission.