14 February, 2014

Can't open SharePoint 2013 site in SharePoint Designer 2013 - Fixed


SharePoint Designer is a very advanced tool which we use for customization purposes like creating SPD workflows, changing master pages, creating customized pages, master page customizations, GUI operations, changing locks etc. But let me tell you, please use this tool very carefully i.e. design and plan every change by taking proper backup. If anything goes wrong then you should be able to revert it back with the default settings.

SP entities:-
OS- Windows 7 32 bit
Designer version- Microsoft SharePoint designer 2013, 32-bit
Browser Status- Fine, site is opening in IE without any issues.
IE version- IE 10 32 bit
SP version- SharePoint 2013

Let me share some troubleshooting steps that I have performed on one of the issue which has been reported by one of the business owners.

Today’s article is completely based on workstation specific i.e. client specific and no need to troubleshoot anything from the server side.

Problem description:-
When I am trying to access my SharePoint site from the SharePoint Designer 2013 then I am getting the following error message.

Error message:-
Server error: The version of Microsoft SharePoint Foundation running on the server is more recent than the version of SharePoint Designer that you are using. You need a more recent version of SharePoint Designer.

When I checked the users’ machine then I found out that he was using multiple office versions for different purposes. – Very strange as one office version can deliver everything that you want then what’s the need of mixed versions.

99%- This issue happens because of multiple office versions installed on the same machine. Microsoft recommends to use the same version of office as well as SPD that corresponds to SharePoint version i.e. if you are using SharePoint 2013 then please make sure that you have the SharePoint Designer 2013 and Office 2013 is a part of the machine i.e. your client machine/desktop/laptop/workstation.

This is not just only one issue because of mixed versions, there are so many with respect to office so best recommendation is as explained above.

Resolution:-
It’s a two-step resolution and not difficult too-

1.    Uninstall all versions of SharePoint Designer on workstation.
2.    Reinstall Microsoft SharePoint Designer 2013

I hope the above information will help you to resolve the issue, in case of any queries/questions regarding the above mentioned information then please let me know. I would be more than happy to help you as well as resolves your issues, Thank you.

5 comments:

  1. Thanks for sharing this information. I have just signed up for a free SharePoint site with http://www.cloudappsportal.com.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hi Amol. Sometimes you can encounter this error when you don't have installed SP1 for SharePoint Designer. You can download it from http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=42015

    -Brian Garnica
    SharePoint Developer en Globant

    ReplyDelete
  3. It's a known error if yo have few different accounts (eg. domain one on the computer and microsoft in SharePoint online). In SharePoint Designer go to to Accounts and make sure the account you want to log in to particular SharePoint Site is selected. I don't have SPD on my computer right now to provide you with full path.

    -Wojciech Wróblewski
    Senior Analyst at Ericpol

    ReplyDelete
  4. There are two things you have to do after installing the latest version of SharePoint Designer with SP1.

    First clean the directories below:
    del "C:\Users\Jeroen\AppData\Local\Microsoft\WebsiteCache"
    del "C:\Users\Jeroen\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\SharePoint Designer\ProxyAssemblyCache"
    del "C:\Users\Jeroen\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Web Server Extensions\Cache"

    Second and this is important even if you are already logged on with the right user:
    Start SharePoint Designer and logon in with the right user (again).

    This works for me.

    -Jeroen Bijdevier
    Salves

    ReplyDelete
  5. Very helpful article ! I was always curious about all these complex algorithms that are being used in these ssl encryptions.

    ReplyDelete

Your feedback is always appreciated. I will try to reply to your queries as soon as possible- Amol Ghuge

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