Introduction
If you experience any issues with the Documents app or live tile, keep on reading this article as it explains how to troubleshoot these issues.
We have noticed that there is a difference between the Classic- and Modern experiences in SharePoint Online and how this effects the Documents app in Workspace 365. We recommend to create Modern sites from the SharePoint Admin Center to ensure a smooth experience in the Documents app. If you use Classic sites, we recommend to disable Faster Loading Experience.
Required SharePoint permissions
You can set permissions in SharePoint via two ways.
1. Permissions per site/branch of the SharePoint hierarchy (common via regular permission structure)
When you assign permissions to SharePoint sites, you usually have limited access or read permissions on the whole path of the hierarchy of that specific site. This way you can browse through the hierarchy within SharePoint and navigate to other sites/document libraries.
In order for Workspace to list the whole path to a document/library, you need at least assign read- or write permissions on the whole path, so from the Root URL to the Document library. Contribute permissions will most likely cause issues, as sites may not be retrieved in Workspace.
Tip: Read our blog about the importance of a good folder structure.
2. Direct permissions to a document library, folder and/or files (common via sharing)
When you share documents and/or files, you grant permissions to that specific document library, folder and/or file and its children. Within SharePoint you can easily access the files, but not the complete path.
In Workspace, if you share a link directly to a user from the Documents app, this user will be assigned unique permissions to that specific item. They will never be able to browse to the item themselves, but the folder or file that has been shared directly to this user will be visible under My Documents -> Shared with me.
Cannot load site contents after changing SharePoint root URL
We advise against changing the SharePoint root URL. Be advised that if the steps described below do not work, it is a matter of waiting for Microsoft to process the changes in SharePoint, and no further actions can be done from the Workspace side
Explanation: After changing the SharePoint root URL, site contents aren't loading.
Solution: You can try the following steps:
Disable and enable the SharePoint integration
Remove the SharePoint API permissions from the SSO app registration and add them again:
Files.ReadWrite.All
Sites.FullControl.All
After re-adding the SharePoint API permissions, re-index the sites giving issues
Temporarily disabling the "faster loading experience" may also help
User gets an error when trying to open the Documents app
Explanation: When a user tries to open the Documents app they get an error, but you can open the Documents app as an admin.
Solution: This is caused by an incorrect root SharePoint root URL. This may be set to a format such as companyname-admin-my.sharepoint.com, this will not work. Or due to missing API permissions.
Check the Root URL: In the workspace, go to Settings > Integrations > SharePoint documents. Enter the correct root URL as the Company's SharePoint URL, it should have the format https://companyname.sharepoint.com
Note: If the URL is set correctly but a user still cannot access the Documents app, verify if they have permissions to access the Documents app via the App Store.
Check API permissions in Azure. Verify if the necessary Microsoft Graph permissions are assigned to the SSO App Registration of Workspace 365.
A site or document library is missing (or empty) in the Documents app
Explanation: It can have various reasons why a site/document library is visible in SharePoint Online, but is missing in the Documents app. Do note that there is a difference between between Modern and Classic experiences for lists and libraries. If this is a SharePoint Classic site, try to disable Faster Loading Experience first, before you continue troubleshooting the steps below.
Solution:
It is important to know how the site is created.
If the site is created via the SharePoint Admin Center, wait 20 minutes and continue with step 2.
If this is a Teams site:
Go to the created Teams site.
Click 'Files' and wait for Workspace to detect the site.
Or wait 24 hours.
Note: Private channels will show as a separate site in the Documents app.
If it is a Teams site, make sure that users that are Owners are also Site Members of the site. Users who only are Owners will not see the site in the workspace.
For more information, go to: Search results don't appear for group owners after creating a new Microsoft 365 group.
A SharePoint site may not show in Workspace if the user is only added to the site's "Members" group, but not to "Site Members". This may happen to "Private group" sites in particular. Verify that the user is added to "Site Members".
In Workspace, check if the missing site is included under Site availability.
Note: When a Workspace administrator enables 'Site availability', the sites will be retrieved based on the permissions in SharePoint for this admin account. If sites are missing, they won't visible to the users.
It is optional to use the SharePoint API from the Microsoft Graph Explorer to check which sites are available to you as an administrator or a specific signed-in Workspace user.
Run the SharePoint search query to check which sites can be retrieved for the signed-in workspace user.
For all site collections and sites, open the SharePoint root site and run:
"STS_Site" AND webtemplate<>"SPSPERS"
For a specific site, run:
contentclass:STS_Site Path:{SiteCollection.URL}*Site not listed? Then it's not being indexed by the SharePoint Search. Therefore, there is no possible way for us to list the site. If so:
Please re-index the site manually or wait for it to be indexed automatically.
Re-index SharePoint root URL.
Check the Health Center in Microsoft 365 for the current status of the service and details about service disruptions and outages.
Site listed? Please make sure the user has all the permissions for the SharePoint site.
Check the permissions under 'Advanced permissions' -> 'Check permissions'.
This must be at least read permissions on the whole path
Avoid 'contribute' permissions.
Click on the (cache) refresh button in the upper left corner in the Documents app
Site still missing, even after 24 hours? Please contact support.
A site name is not up to date in the Documents app
Explanation: It could have various reasons why a site name is not up to date in the Documents app compared to SharePoint Online. In most cases, you must wait. Or follow the steps below.
Solution:
There is a difference between SharePoint Classic and SharePoint Modern. If this is a Classic site, disable 'Faster Loading Experience'.
Use the SharePoint API to check the site name in the Microsoft Graph Explorer. If the site name is not up to date in the MS Graph Explorer, Workspace will not be updated with the new names either.
Re-index the site or wait for it to be indexed automatically.
Click on the (cache) refresh button in the upper left corner in the Documents app
If sites names are still not up to date or missing after 24 hours, please contact support.
OneDrive ('Documents' and 'Shared with me') is missing
Explanation: The 'Documents' and 'Shared with me' folders are part of OneDrive. If a user’s OneDrive is not appearing in the Documents app, OneDrive may not have been provisioned.
Solution:
Verify that the user’s OneDrive has been provisioned.
Check if the user has signed in to OneDrive and verify if that same user is signed into Workspace.
Create a test file in the user’s OneDrive.
Click on the (cache) refresh button in the upper left corner in the Documents app
Check if OneDrive shows up in the Documents app. If not, please contact support.
File couldn't be found
Explanation: When a file name has been changed and a user wants to open the file after the name change, Workspace will still search for the old file name. This will result in an error for the user: "file couldn't be found".
Solution: The solution at this moment is to refresh the page manually, so that the file name change will go through and the file can be opened.
Unable to retrieve items (Failed to load documents)
Explanation: In SharePoint, there is an item list threshold of 5000 items. This means that when a folder in the library has more than 5000 items, Workspace cannot display the contents as the item list threshold is exceeded. When this happens, the error above occurs.
Solution: Clean up or reorganize the folder to ensure it contains less than 5000 items. Review the recommendations, techniques, and tips outlined in Manage large lists and libraries in SharePoint:
Error 500 when opening a PDF file
Explanation: When opening a PDF file, you get an error 500. This is caused by a (CA) policy blocking file downloads.
Solution: In the SharePoint settings in the workspace, set PDF and text files to be opened using the SharePoint file viewer.
Why does it take so long to copy folders?
Explanation: Copying folders may take a long time (or nothing seems to happen at all), even when they are empty or don't contain much data. So how come? Workspace checks after 30 seconds if SharePoint has made any changes. When this is not the case, we check again after 1 minute, 2 minutes, etc. with a maximum of 5 minutes.
So why can't Workspace refresh the page automatically for example every 5 seconds? This is because it may cause problems. When a user renames a file, it can be troublesome when the page refreshes during renaming the file. And as a consequence, the name change didn't go through.
Solution: Manually refresh the page. Or click around in de Documents app and return to the file location.
Why are my documents taking so long to open?
Explanation: From the Documents app, or when you click on a 'Recent' document or 'Bookmark' from the live tile for the first time, it may take some time before it opens (in most cases after 10-15 seconds), especially in bigger SharePoint environments. However, caching (which is kept for 9 hours) helps improve the speed at which files are opened. The second time you open that same file within 9 hours, it should open much faster.
Solution: Unfortunately, there is no solution to this problem other than to open files more frequently or to just wait.