Troubleshooting the SharePoint “File not found” Error

Have you ever come across a “File Not Found” error when accessing some part of your WSS 3.0, MOSS 2007, or SharePoint 2010 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.

I’ll break it down into an easy-to-follow guide that should give you a starting point to troubleshoot the error.

Follow these steps:

1. Navigate Here:
   C:\inetpub\wwroot\wss\Virtual Directories\<your web app‘s virtual directory>
   1. You can also open IIS
   2. Expand Sites
   3. Right click on your SharePoint site
   4. Choose explore
   5. proceed to step 2
2. Copy and paste the web.config file (making a backup)
3. Open web.config using notepad
4. Search for “CallStack” , set this equal to true
5. Search for “Custom”, set the customerrors = “Off”
6. Search for “Debug”, set Debug = “True”
7. 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 to the blog for more SharePoint tips and tricks!