Hi, I'm getting the same error when trying to delete subsites. I can successfully delete it using stsadm -o deleteweb -force, but not all users have access to this. When the site owners try to delete a subsite, they get the error message "Can not reach the Messages.xml file! ".

Can you give us some more details around this behavior? Is it reproduceable for you where you can create a new subsite and then can't delete it? What template is the root site and the problem subsites? What type of lists/libraries or other dependencies exist withint these subsites?Fred Ellis - MSFT - "Please remember to click Mark as Answer on the post that helps you, and to click Unmark as Answer if a marked post does not actually answer your question. This can be beneficial to other community members reading the thread."

Hi again, A bit late reply, but this is still an issue for us. It actually only happens from time to time, and not for all subsites. This morning I wanted to delete to subsites. The first one was deleted OK, but the second one gave me this error. It was created using the STS template.Kind regards, Frank-Ove

Hi all, This occured again today, after moving a site collection into the portal (top-level site). I opened "Manage content and structure", and tried deleting the site from there. It displays a message saying the operation failed, and when I click "View logs", the following message is logged: <error><message>Can not reach the Messages.xml file!</message><full>Microsoft.SharePoint.SPException: Can not reach the Messages.xml file! ---&gt; System.Runtime.InteropServices.COMException (0x81072186): Can not reach the Messages.xml file! at Microsoft.SharePoint.Library.SPRequestInternalClass.DeleteWeb(String bstrUrl) at Microsoft.SharePoint.Library.SPRequest.DeleteWeb(String bstrUrl) --- End of inner exception stack trace --- at Microsoft.SharePoint.Library.SPRequest.DeleteWeb(String bstrUrl) at Microsoft.SharePoint.SPWeb.Delete() at Microsoft.SharePoint.Publishing.Internal.WebControls.DeleteRecursive.DeleteOp(ObjectSerializer objser) at Microsoft.SharePoint.Publishing.Internal.WebControls.SmtLongRunningJob.ApplyPostOrder(NodeOperator op, ObjectSerializer objser, UInt32&amp; numaffected) at Microsoft.SharePoint.Publishing.Internal.WebControls.DeleteRecursive.DoWork()</full><customData>Operation to Delete &#39;/RD/TestVerGlobal&#39; Failed</customData></error> There are no subsites. I copied "http://intranet/sites/mysitecoll" to "http://intranet/subsite/mysitecoll". Anyone have any suggestions? Kind regards, Frank-Ove

How did you copy the site exactly? You typically tend to see that error message when dealing with orphan sites. Fred has posted a list of suggestions on a similar thread to this, that would be worth you looking at: - http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en/sharepointgeneral/thread/7c5a35b0-f286-46a2-b39c-ce0d8ac9c55f Please let us know if these work out.Steven Andrews | SharePoint Professional | http://www.twitter.com/backpackerd00d | https://baron72.wordpress.com/

Hi, Thank you for quick feedback, I really appreciate it. The copy was done using Axceler ControlPoint for SharePoint 2007. I have asked Axceler Support as well regarding this, but they respond with that their tool is just a graphical overlay of the built-in API, and that they run standard exports under the hood. I can confirm that I can delete the webs using stsadm -o deleteweb -force. But this is not an option when site owner want to delete subsites. This has happened before, and users keep getting this error from time to time. The enumallwebs command gives me the following output about my newly copied site: <Web Id="280e6fe6-a625-47f5-8253-3083de9607cb" Url="/RD/TestVerGlobal" LanguageId="1033" TemplateName="LMASV12#0" TemplateId="10005" /> Not much information regarding orphaned site or not. Any other suggestions?Kind regards, Frank-Ove