PRB: Factbox returns the error message 'SharePoint authorisation was refused'

ZTN4598

This Zetadocs technical note applies to:

• Zetadocs Delivery and Zetadocs Capture (Cloud Extension and On-premises Extension) version 3.0.23087 and later
• Zetadocs Delivery and Zetadocs Capture On-Premises installation version 11.1.2516 and later

Summary

This technote is to go through the situations of why and when you may experience the following error message:

"Zetadocs could not contact SharePoint. SharePoint authorisation was refused. Please verify the user permissions"

More information

The reason we are seeing this error message, is due to SharePoint refusing the access to the content.

It may be due to the user who is accessing the factbox not having the required permissions to perform the search to SharePoint to retrieve the files.

The lowest permission a user will need on the files will be 'Read'. Please ensure that the user accessing the factbox has at least this permission to access the factbox.

If this doesn't resolve the issue, some files may have been uploaded with special characters which may no longer work with the software. Such as a '#' or other equivilent special characters. This maybe in the file name or in the folder path. If this is the case, Zetadocs will attempt a rename on the folder or file name, replacing the special character with an "_". For this action the user accessing will need 'Read and Write' permissions added to the SharePoint Document Library. Once a user with this permission accessing the factbox to perform this rename, this will then work for all users who only have the 'Read' permissions.

Here is an example of this process:

• Here we have a file which has been previously uploaded with a '#' in the filename:

• A user who only has 'Read' permissions accesses the factbox:

• A user who has 'Read and Write' permissions then goes into the factbox afterwards and Zetadocs performs the rename:

• Here's the file in SharePoint afterwards:

• The user who has only 'Read' permissions then accesses the factbox and can see the same file again.

References

Last updated: 6th June 2023 (BB/CR) 

Keywords: Zetadocs SharePoint Authorisation Refused