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Cannot Delete SharePoint Web App (Orphaned DB)

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I recently encountered a frustrating SharePoint issue that I hadn't seen in many years and had almost forgotten about. It's a rare problem, but it resurfaced while I was configuring a new SharePoint Subscription Edition farm. I was unable to delete a web application, neither through Central Administration nor with PowerShell using Remove-SPWebApplication due to this error : An object in the SharePoint administrative framework, SPWebApplication Name=webAppName, could not be deleted because other objects depend on it.  Update all of these dependants to point to null or different objects and retry this operation.  The dependant objects are as follows:  Screenshot: Diagnosis There could be multiple possible causes for this symptom, but one way to reproduce the error is attempting to delete the web application and its content database without the sufficient permission on the SharePoint configuration database. In that scenario, the physical content database is dropped in SQL S...
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Troubleshooting Load Balancer Failures: Restoring SPRequestFilterModule in SharePoint

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Symptoms The load balancer (F5) stopped sending web traffic to one of its pool members (SharePoint frontend) because it detected that the server was down.  Diagnosis IIS logs show the load balancer probes as follows: Note that the HTTP status code ( sc-* ) is recorded as  0.0.2 . The Win32 status  of  2  -- which commonly corresponds to ERROR_FILE_NOT_FOUND   when a default page (such as default.aspx or index.html) is missing -- is misleading in a SharePoint context. SharePoint does not store a default page in the site's root directory, and the load balancer is not configured to query default files.  What's more relevant here is that the server returned  0 bytes to the client and logged a 0 ms response time , indicating the request failed immediately in IIS before reaching the SharePoint/application layer. Therefore, the failure likely occurred earlier in the request pipeline during the native module handoff. While multiple factors could cause s...
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SharePoint Subscription Edition, Offline Prerequisite Installation

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Microsoft has simplified the installation of SharePoint Server Subscription Edition (SE) compared to previous versions, a significant improvement for administrators. However, it is important to note a new prerequisite introduced with the March 2023 update (version 23H1 , 16.0.16130.20206): because the software was recompiled with the Visual C++ 2022 compiler , the Visual C++ Redistributable Package for Visual Studio 2015-2022 (in lieu of the 2015-2019 version) has since become the new prerequisite for subsequent SE installations. Currently the latest major feature release is 25H2  (Sept. 2025). Recently I had to install SE  offline  with the latest cumulative updates, so I pre-downloaded the Visual C++ 2015-2022 Redistributable and the March 2026 CU (KB5002843, 16.0.19725.20076) for slipstreaming. That process exposed a bit of SharePoint pain. Two things: 1. (Minor) The Visual C++ Redistributable file name is the same between the old and new packages -  VC_redist.x...
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Some or all identity references could not be translated

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One of the unexpected occurrences in a segregated IT environment is that an action intended to help one organization may inadvertently harm others. For example, when the Active Directory (AD) team deletes an inactive service account as part of a cleanup process, it may seem well justified from their perspective. However, that account could still be linked to SharePoint’s managed accounts, which must be cleaned up before its deletion in AD. If this cleanup is overlooked, SharePoint will display an error on the Central Admin's "Configure Service Accounts" page at <https://CentralAdminUrl>/_admin/FarmCredentialManagement.aspx: Diagnosis/Remedy 1. Navigate to the Managed Accounts page in Central Admin at <https://caUrl>/admin/ManagedAccounts.aspx. 2. Check if any service accounts listed are missing a value in the PasswordExpiration column. You can also retrieve the info in PowerShell by running Get-SPManagedAccount : 3. If any missing values are found under  Pass...
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Strange Read-Only Behaviors of Site Collections

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[SharePoint 2016, 16.0.5530.1000]  Suppose you have a site collection in read-only mode and want to remove that status. Normally this is achieved by selecting the " Not locked " option on the " Site Collection Quota and Locks " page in Central Admin or by running one of the following PowerShell commands: (Get-SPSite "<https://siteCollectionUrl>").ReadOnly = $false or Set-SPSite "<https://siteCollectionUrl>" -LockState Unlock There is also the LockState parameter of the Set-SPSiteAdministration command that can be utilized, but I did not try it in this particular case. Nonetheless, there is a rare case where neither of these PowerShell commands works. They do not output any errors in PowerShell or even in verbose-enabled ULS logs when they fail to run, and the interface in Central Admin is grayed out as follows: The site collection is truly locked for read-only access, as site collection admins do not see the full site menu. Additiona...
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SSL Configuration Error After Removing SharePoint Web Application

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[SharePoint 16.0.5530.1000] When you delete a web application in SharePoint, whether through PowerShell or Central Admin, you can instruct SharePoint to remove the associated IIS site with it. However, if the web application is running on port 443, the SSL certificate binding may need to be cleaned up manually. At first glance, one might assume that deleting the IIS site would automatically remove the SSL binding, as the site would no longer be available. Unfortunately, this is not always the case. This can be verified by checking the Windows System event logs, which would become flooded with Event ID 15021 errors if the binding is not cleaned up: "An error occurred while using SSL configuration for endpoint <webAppIP>:443.  The error status code is contained within the returned data." Diagnosis Use the netsh http   command to diagnose and fix the error. You can include the reported IP address from the System event logs in the command to verify the existence of the cer...
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October 2025 SharePoint CU Failed to Install After Applying September 2025 SharePoint CU

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[Tested on SharePoint 2016 only] Applying the September 2025 SharePoint Cumulative Updates to SharePoint On-Prem was a bit chaotic as it introduced a number of bugs. It would have been better if I had the option to skip it and go straight to the October CU. Stefan, Sr. SharePoint Escalation Engineer at Microsoft, has summarized the issues very well on  his blog . While many of the issues have been fixed in the October CU release, the fix for the "installation of this package failed" error  was not included for those who had already applied the September CU before the fix was made. That is, the System and Local Service accounts have to be manually removed from the WSS_WPG and IIS_IUSRS groups before applying the October CU. Without this step, I encountered a new popup error that said: Error 2349. An internal error has occurred. ( ) Contact Microsoft Product Support Services (PSS) for assistance. For information about how to contact PSS, see PSS10R.CHM. Remedy Remove the...
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