Tag Archives: Content Database

Error “Cannot Complete This Action” when changing the look of a web in SharePoint 2013

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Issue

I ran into an issue where in one of my site collections, I was no longer able to change the composed look or “Change the Look” in SharePoint 2013.  After selecting a composed look, the following error would be presented:

image

Cannot complete this action.  Please try again.

The ULS logs did not contain much useful information either:

ULS Logs

08/14/2015 08:09:13.47    w3wp.exe (0x15E8)          0x3118   SharePoint Foundation    General 8kh7     High     Cannot complete this action.  Please try again.      0ee8239d-e4c1-9060-8a21-d1416cc5bdef

08/14/2015 08:09:13.47    w3wp.exe (0x15E8)          0x3118   SharePoint Foundation    General ai1wu    Medium            System.Runtime.InteropServices.COMException: Cannot complete this action.  Please try again., StackTrace:    at Microsoft.SharePoint.SPWeb.InitWebPublic()     at Microsoft.SharePoint.SPWeb.get_AlternateUILcids()     at …

 

Cause

Because I has some strange issues trying to restore a web from the recycle bin earlier in the day, I decided to check to see if there were any orphan items in the content database.  Sure enough, there was an orphaned web and that was causing the “Change the Look” issue throughout the site collection.

 

Solution

The first step is to check to see if this applies in your environment.

  1. Get the content database name

Get-SPSite <SiteCollectionURL> | FL *Database*

  1. Check for orphaned items

$ContentDB = Get-SPContentDatabase <ContentDBNameFromStepAbove>
$ContentDB.Repair($false)

The above method will output XML that contains each of the orphaned items in the content database.

If you do have orphaned items, take a full backup of your SQL database.  Then proceed with the following:

  1. Run the Repair method against the content database

$ContentDB.Repair($true)

  1. Confirm there are no longer any orphaned items by reviewing the XML output from the prior step
  2. Try to apply the composed look to one of the webs in the site collection

 

References

Here is the MSDN page that outlines the repair method.

https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/microsoft.sharepoint.administration.spcontentdatabase.repair.aspx