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SharePoint Troubleshooting

Updated

Introduction

In Kleene, SharePoint troubleshooting usually starts by confirming the exact site, folder, file, sheet, headers and authentication setup before investigating the connector for breakages.

This guide summarises common SharePoint connector problems, why they happen and the steps to resolve them.

Issue description

SharePoint extracts may fail during ingestion, return generic API errors, load data into the wrong columns or stop working after a period of time. The visible error does not always point directly to the root cause.

Common examples include:

-- 404
-- Requested site could not be found
-- External API returned an error
-- invalid_grant

The issue can also appear as incorrect loaded data, such as values shifting into the wrong columns or dates changing into Excel serial numbers.

Signs

You may be dealing with a SharePoint connector issue if:

  • The extract fails with a 404 error even though credentials appear correct.
  • The error says the requested site could not be found.
  • The connector can access one SharePoint site but not another.
  • Values appear in the wrong columns after ingestion.
  • Dates appear as Excel serial values, such as 45078.
  • The extract fails with a generic external API error.
  • The connector fails every two weeks with invalid_grant.
  • Large .xlsx files fail to load or run out of memory.
  • The file path, folder name, sheet name, or header row does not match what the connector expects.

Basic troubleshooting steps

Start with the following checks to narrow down the cause:

  • Confirm the SharePoint site, folder path, file name and sheet name.
  • Compare the connector configuration against the exact SharePoint path.
  • Check whether folder names contain spaces or special characters.
  • Confirm whether the authenticating user has access to the specific SharePoint site.
  • Check whether the file has headers and whether every header value is populated.
  • Check the file size and row count if the file is an Excel workbook.
  • Confirm whether the connector token needs to be refreshed.

Common causes and how to fix them

Incorrect SharePoint path or folder configuration

A 404 error can occur when the connector configuration does not exactly match the real SharePoint folder structure. This can happen even when the credentials are correct.

For example, a folder shown as Data and Analytics in SharePoint may need to be configured differently, such as DataandAnalytics, depending on the actual path value used by SharePoint.

How to fix it: verify the folder structure with the client, ideally using screenshots or a copied SharePoint path. Update the extract configuration so the site, folder, file, and sheet names match the actual SharePoint structure exactly.

Site-specific access missing

A user may have access to one SharePoint site but not another. If the same connector is used to pull from a new site, the authenticating user still needs explicit access to that specific site.

How to fix it: confirm that the authenticating user can open the exact SharePoint site and file manually. If not, ask the client to grant access to the site, folder, or file being extracted.

Special characters in file or sheet names

Special characters, spaces, or hyphens in file names or sheet names can sometimes disrupt extraction or path resolution.

How to fix it: rename files and sheets to use simple, connector-safe names. Prefer underscores instead of hyphens or spaces where possible.

Example:

Use: sales_report_2026.xlsx
Avoid: sales-report 2026.xlsx

Dates converted to Excel serial values

Excel stores dates internally as serial numbers. If date parsing changes, dates may load as values such as 45078 rather than SQL-friendly date strings.

How to fix it: check whether the date issue appeared alongside other parsing problems. Rerun the extract after any connector rollback or fix and confirm that date formatting returns to the expected format.

Missing or blank headers

A generic External API returned an error message can occur when the connector expects headers but the source file has a blank value in the header row. In one case, the first column of the header row was blank.

How to fix it: test the extract with Headers Included unticked. If the file can be read without headers, either ask the client to populate the missing header in the source file or configure Kleene to exclude headers and handle column naming in SQL transforms.

Authentication token expiry

Some SharePoint connectors may fail every two weeks with an invalid_grant error if the authentication token requires manual refresh and automatic refresh is not fully supported for the login flow being used.

How to fix it: manually refresh the authentication as a temporary workaround. If the issue repeats, development work may be needed to support the required token refresh grant type for the SharePoint connector.

Large Excel files

Large .xlsx files can fail because the SharePoint connector struggles with the memory required to process them. An example file size was around 161 MB with approximately 500k rows.

How to fix it: reduce the file size or use a different ingestion route. Options include resaving the file as .xls where this significantly reduces size, splitting the file, or using the standard File Ingest method instead of the SharePoint connector for bulk loads.

Additional information

SharePoint errors can be misleading because a 404 may be caused by path mismatch or site access rather than a missing file. Similarly, a generic external API error may be caused by a blank header, and data integrity issues may come from connector parsing changes rather than the source file itself.

When troubleshooting SharePoint extracts, work through the configuration, access, file structure, headers, authentication and file size in order. This helps identify whether the issue can be fixed in the extract configuration, by updating the file, by refreshing authentication or by escalating a connector behaviour to development.

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