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Error message when you add a user who was previously a site owner to a WSS 3.0 site collection: "The file exists"

Article ID: 953456 - View products that this article applies to.

SYMPTOMS

The SharePoint site administrator provisions a new Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 site and is listed as the site owner. When you try to delete the account from Active Directory and then re-create an account that has the same account name, you cannot add an account back to the site collection. Additionally, you receive an error message that resembles the following:

The file exists. (Exception from HRESULT: 0x80070050)

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CAUSE

This problem occurs because the original account is still referenced as an active site owner in the UserInfo table of the content database.

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RESOLUTION

To resolve this problem, follow these steps:

Determine whether the account belongs to the site owner group. To do this, follow these steps:
1. Start SharePoint 3.0 Central Administration by using a user account that has administrator permissions to the site collection.
2. Click the Application Management tab.
3. Under SharePoint Site Management, click Site collection administrators.
4. In the Site Collection list, click to select the Web application that is affected. The two site collection administrators are listed.
If the original account belongs to the site owner group, the account must be removed or replaced with a different account either by using the user interface or by using the stsadm -o siteowner command.

For more information about how to use the Stsadm command-line tool, visit the following Microsoft Web site:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc262637.aspx
(http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc262637.aspx)
After the original account is removed or replaced, you should be able to successfully add the new account to the site collection.

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MORE INFORMATION

You must manually delete the user account from the site collection or site owner group. Otherwise, the account is still listed in the UserInfo table of the affected content database, and the code does not remove the old account.

For more information about the UserInfo table, visit the following Microsoft Web site:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms998712.aspx

(http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms998712.aspx)

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