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Veritas Alta SaaS Protection : Microsoft SharePoint Online item stubbing errors

Article: 100066009
Last Published: 2025-01-29
Ratings: 0 0
Product(s): Veritas Alta SaaS Protection

Problem

An error occurred while stubbing a Microsoft SharePoint Online item.

Error Message

Error URL stubbing item with server relative URL '<server-relative-url>'

Cause

During the stubbing process, errors can occur for the following reasons:

1.    Network error during SharePoint Online API call.
2.    SharePoint Online API throttling.
3.    SharePoint Online API failure.
4.    Incompatible SharePoint Online settings for item stubbing.
5.    Policies applied on SharePoint File, List, Site are incompatible with item stubbing. 
 

Solution

Errors can occur at any stage of the stubbing process. The stubbing process tries to recover from errors and keep the original file intact as much as possible. However, if the file remains in an inconsistent state, the user needs to act based on the type of error to revert the file to its original state.

Sr.

File state

Action Needed

1.

 Error renaming file. The original file remained intact.

No action required.

2.

Error renaming file. The original file is renamed as a stub.

Rename the file back to the original file name using a PnP PowerShell command:

Sample command:

Move-PnPFile "Shared Documents/Document1.docx.stub.url" -TargetUrl " Shared Documents/Document1.docx"

3.

Error renaming file. The revert-operation is also failed with error: <additional-error-details>

If the file is not renamed in SharePoint, no action is required.

Otherwise, depending on additional error messages, take appropriate action as indicated by the error message.

4.

Error renaming file. A stub file with the same name exists in the target location with the different item ID.

No action is required. File renaming failed because a stub file with the same stub name exists for another file.  

5.

Error overwriting file with stub. The stub file upload failed. The file is renamed back successfully.

No action is required.

6.

Error overwriting file with stub. The stub file upload failed. The file is renamed back; however, it remains in an inconsistent state because it could not revert its stub content.

If versioning is enabled in the document library,

  • Check if the file content is changed.
  • If changes are found, restore older versions of the file from the file version history in SharePoint.
  • Delete the version that contains the stub.


If versioning is not enabled in the document library,

  • Restore the file back to its original location from Veritas Alta SaaS Protection.

 

7.

Error overwriting file with stub. The stub file upload failed. The file is in an inconsistent state because the attempt to revert the stub content and rename the file failed with the error: [<error-message>].

 

If versioning is enabled in the document library,

  • Rename the file back to its original name using the PnP PowerShell command.
  • Check if the file content is changed.
  • If changes are found, restore older versions of the file from the file version history in SharePoint.
  • Delete the version that contains the stub.

If versioning is not enabled in the document library,

  • Restore the file back to its original location from Veritas Alta SaaS Protection.

8.

Error overwriting file with stub. The stub file upload failed. The original file is renamed to stub, which needs to be renamed manually as the revert-back operation is failed with error: [<error-message>]

 

If versioning is enabled in the document library:

  • Rename the file back to its original name using a PnP PowerShell command.
  • Check if file content is changed.
  • If changes are found, restore the older versions of the file from the file version history in SharePoint.
  • Delete the version that contains the stub.


If versioning is not enabled in the document library,

  • Restore the file back to its original location from Veritas Alta SaaS Protection.

 

9.

Error overwriting file with stub. The stub property update failed. The file is renamed back successfully.

 

No action required.

10.
Error overwriting file with stub. The stub property update failed. The file is renamed back; however, it remains in an inconsistent state because it could not revert its stub content.

If versioning is enabled in the document library:

  • Check if the file content is changed.
  • If changes are found, restore older versions of the file from the file version history in SharePoint.
  • Delete the version that contains the stub.


If versioning is not enabled in the document library:

  • Restore the file back to its original location from Veritas Alta SaaS Protection.

11.

Error overwriting file with stub. The stub property update failed. The file is in an inconsistent state because the attempt to revert the stub content and rename the file failed with the error: [<error-message>].

 

If versioning is enabled in the document library,

  • Rename the file back using the PnP PowerShell command.
  • Check if the file content is changed.
  • If changes are found, restore older versions of the file from the file version history in SharePoint.
  • Delete the version that contains the stub.


If versioning is not enabled in the document library:

  • Restore the file back to its original location from Veritas Alta SaaS Protection.


 

12.

Error overwriting file with stub. The stub property update failed. The original file is renamed to stub, which needs to be renamed manually as the revert-back operation is failed with error: [<error-message>].

If versioning is enabled in the document library,

  • Rename the file back using the PnP PowerShell command.
  • Check if the file content is changed.
  • If changes are found, restore older versions of the file from the file version history in SharePoint.
  • Delete the version that contains the stub.

If versioning is not enabled in the document library:

  • Restore the file back to its original location from Veritas Alta SaaS Protection.

13.

Error removing old item versions after stubbing. This item will be stubbed, but the old version history remains intact.

The file is stubbed. Contact Veritas Technical Support to delete the older version of the file to save space on SPO site.

 

 
14

ASP skips backing up the item/item versions with stubbed content and logs the following informational message:

“Backup of <N> item(s) or item versions in site '<site URL>' was skipped as stub content was detected in them. Enable SharePoint connector diagnostic logging, if a log of such items is required. For more details, please refer tech note https://www.veritas.com/content/support/en_US/article.100066009.html ”

Though these affected items/item versions are eligible for stubbing, stubbing will not occur until the affected versions (stub content versions) are removed.
  • Request Veritas support to enable SharePoint connector diagnostic logging to generate a detailed list of the affected items/item versions.
  • Manually delete these affected items/item versions for the SharePoint versioned library. 
    After deletion, they will be included in subsequent backups, and the above informational log will not appear.
  • To confirm that the stub URL points to the correct item:
    - Rename the affected items/item versions to   `.stub.url`  using PowerShell. 
    - Click the stub and download the content to verify.
  • To replace the stubbed versions with the original content
    - Perform an administrative restore of the affected items/item versions using the overwrite setting Delete existing versions

 

Stubbing failure due to invalid retention policy or grace eDiscovery hold:

If the site has an invalid retention policy, or a grace eDiscovery hold, removing an older version(s) of an item will fail with an error message as below.

“A non retryable error occurred.
ServerErrorCode: -2130575223, ServerErrorTypeName: Microsoft.SharePoint.SPException.
Versions of this item cannot be deleted because it is on hold or retention policy.”

Microsoft reference link: An invalid policy blocks a SharePoint site deletion - SharePoint | Microsoft Learn

 

PnP PowerShell command to rename the stub back to its original name:

Connect-PnPOnline -Url <SiteUrl>
Move-PnPFile <list-name/file-name.ext.stub.url> -TargetUrl <list-name/file-name.ext>

Example:
Connect-PnPOnline -Url https://mytenant.sharepoint.com/sites/mysite
Move-PnPFile "Shared Documents/Document1.docx.stub.url" -TargetUrl "Shared Documents/ Document1.docx"
 

 

 
 

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