Configuration Failed - Failed to connect to the configuration database: Error during decryption. Ensure the passphrase is correct.

Issue Description

1. I was trying to connect a SharePoint server to an existing farm after entering the farm passphrase.

The configuration wizard fails and gives me the below error message

Configuration Failed

Failed to connect to the configuration database: 

An exception of type System.ArgumentException was thrown. Additional exception information: Error during decryption. Ensure the passphrase is correct.

2. I tried putting in a garbage passphrase and it gave an error message: The passphrase you entered is incorrect. Please try again

3. But when I tried putting in the correct farm passphrase, it went past this stage and the configuration wizard failed.

Fix

1. Clear SharePoint Configuration Cache on all SharePoint servers

2. Run the configuration wizard on the new server

SharePoint 2016 : WSS Usage Application proxy in Stopped State

Issue Description

I was working on installing and configuring a SharePoint 2016 farm and I noticed that the Usage and Health Data Collection Proxy was in Stopped State

Fix

Get-SPServiceApplicationProxy

Copy the ID for the WSS Usage Application and use it in your PowerShell command

$UsageApp = Get-SPServiceApplicationProxy | Where {$_.ID -eq "14804966-1b85-4538-b25b-2a15269147a4"}

$UsageApp.Provision()

SharePoint 2013: The server was unable to save the form at this time. Please try again.

Error Description

When I am trying to save data on any list in the farm I got the below error

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

Fix

An IISRESET fixed the issue.

Setsitelock: Stsadm operation

Sets a value that specifies whether the site collection is locked and unavailable for read or write access. This operation should be used in conjunction with the Getsitelock operation. For more information, see the Examples section.

Syntax

stsadm -o setsitelock

   -url <URL name>

   -lock {none | noadditions | readonly | noaccess}

None: Sets the site collection to unlock.

Noadditions: Permits changes that reduce the size of the data.

For example, if you had an announcement list item whose body consisted of 50 characters, you could successfully edit the list item so that the body was reduced to 25 characters. However, if you tried to edit the list item so that they body was increased to 100 characters, that would be blocked.

Readonly: Sets the site collection to read-only.

Noaccess: Sets the site collection unavailable to all users.

Examples

To determine the lock status of the site, you can use the following getsitelock syntax:

stsadm -o getsitelock -url http://server_name

Once the lock status of the site collection is determined, you can use the noaccess parameter of the setsitelock operation to lock out all users to the site:

stsadm -o setsitelock -url http://server_name -lock noaccess

Reference

Publish SharePoint Calendar to Microsoft Outlook

1. Browse to SharePoint site

2. Click on the SharePoint Calendar link on the left navigation

3. This brings up the calendar.

4. On the top of the page, select Calendar Tools -> Calendar. This will open the ribbon option for the calendar.

5. Click on Connect to Outlook.

6. This opens a pop up. Click Allow.

7. Click Allow

8. Click Yes

9. This will add the SharePoint Calendar in your Microsoft Outlook Calendar section

How to delete a corrupted SharePoint list using PowerShell

$web = get-spweb -Identity http://sp2010

$list = $web.lists["corrupted list name"]

$list.AllowDeletion = $true

$list.Update()

$list.Delete()

SharePoint Developer Dashboard

Developer Dashboard is a great feature on SharePoint 2010. This feature is disabled by default. And it provides performance and tracing information that can be used to debug and troubleshoot page rendering time issues. (slow page loads, web part issues, query delays) .Enabling this great feature will get critical information about execution time, log correlation ID, critical events, database queries, service calls, SPRequests allocation and webpart events offsets.

The Developer Dashboard feature is turned off by default, but it can be enabled very easy via stsadm or PowerShell.

Check status of Developer Dashboard

stsadm -o getproperty -pn developer-dashboard

Enable Developer Dashboard via stsadm:

�On� Mode:

stsadm -o setproperty -pn developer-dashboard -pv On

�OnDemand� Mode:

stsadm -o setproperty -pn developer-dashboard -pv OnDemand

Disable Developer Dashboard via stsadm:

stsadm -o setproperty -pn developer-dashboard -pv Off