For some reason I can no longer access the Operations tab from the SharePoint Central Administration 3.0 control panel. The error message I get is Group Cannot Be Found. Can anyone help please? Thank you in advance John

Go to the C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\web server extensions\12\LOGS directory to get more verbose information about this error. I suspect one of the Windows groups SharePoint uses has been deleted (WSS_*).

how many windows groups are there for MOSS to use? I count 3 thus far. The log files were not alot of help.

I believe there are only 3, so have you changed your SharePoint security at all? The reason I ask is that if you aren't paying attention you could easily change security at Central Administration instead of your appropriate site, and that could be the problem.

I checked the logs and nothing of any help. I do have 3 WSS groups and I am stumped.

If the site is not in production, I would tell you to backup anything you want using SQL or stsadm backup, uninstall SharePoint, then reinstall SharePoint and verify everything's working. Then restore from your SQL / stsadm backup after you have recreated the appropriate Web applications in SharePoint.

This error is misleading.What happened in my environment was that the Sharepoint group Farm Administrators existed and could be resolved, however it was not assigned any permissions! To find which group was causing the problem I set diagnostic logging to verbose and got this error: The following error was thrown while looking up the group, Farm Administrators: Microsoft.SharePoint.SPException: Group cannot be found. The other telling thing was that when i went to select the "Farm Administrators" group to edit permissions from the dropdown, it showed "Farm Administrators [No access]." Make sure Farm Administrators has Full Control and try the Operations tab again. Andrew

Hi there,I had the same problem and thought I'd share my experience.Initially, one of our developers created a new web site off of Central Admin site (bad move). After they realized that this is not where their new site should be, they deleted. However, after they did that, no one was able to access the Operations or Application Management tab. the only account that could access these tabs was an account that was also a Domain Admin(call it spadmin). To resolve it, I tried the following:1- checked all security groups. they *seemed* normal2- Re-ran the 'Sharepoint Product and Technologies Wizard'. It failed with a Security exception 'failed to register sharepoint services security.securityexception'.3 - I then logged in with an account that seemed to work(spadmin) and then I got the 'Group Cannot be found' error, which lead me to this post!After I re-created the 'Farm Administrators' group and added the developers and admins to this group, we can now access the 'Operations' and "Application Managment' tab. I've told the developers to NEVER CREATE A SITE off of Central admin So, if you have a problem accessing the Operations and App Management tab, check the Farm Administrators group to make sure it's still there and set up properly.Enjoy

Thank you for posting this! I made the same mistake tonight. Installed a site within Central Admin to test a template. Deleted that site, and then the Operations tab became inaccessable - "Group Cannot be found" error. I also re-ran the wizard, racked my brain, sweated it out, and searched the net for an hour looking for an answer. Yours was that answer I needed. I re-created the Farm Administrators group and the problem is solved. You are a lifesaver.

Hi, I am running across this very same problem. However, since I am very new to Sharepoint, I cannot seem to find Where and how to re-create the Farm Administrators group. Would you be so kind as to share how you accomplished the task.. Thank you very much

Hi LISpeadyG (I would be logged in as the system administrator for this process) Under 'Site Actions' ==> 'Site Settings' Thenunder 'Users and permissions' select'People and Groups' On this page, in your navigation on the left you will see 'Groups'. It will be bolded and towards at the top-left I beleive.W With groupsselected, youshould see the groups you have setup. To createagroup: New => New Group Name field = Farm Administrators Group Owner = Would set this to the system administrator if it isn't already. Then towards the bottom, just give this group 'Full Control' and then click the create button. Once finished, select the 'Farm Administrators'group. You will should see a blank screen, click: New => Add users Specify the users you wish to be part of the Farm Administrators Group and you should be set. Good Luck~

Hello What was happening is the following as of lot of errors in sharepoint they are not very descriptive “Group cannot be found” mean that group had no permission within site, to be accessible the group should have at least read permission within the site. So if you create new group or your using group with no access, you will have the error Resolution : Give permission to your group on the site J CheersMomo