SharePoint consistently prompting for user credentials
"Why is SharePoint consistently requesting for user credentials?"
This is a question I see on a regular basis when people are using SharePoint and usually the solution is relatively simple. Hopefully this post will help people through the different options to eliminating this frustrating credential popup screen.
Scenario 1 : Users are part of a domain
If you are receiving the credential popup screen when your users are part of the domain this normally means the site is not falling into the correct Internet Explorer security zone. Take note of the security zone the SharePoint site is part of when you navigate to it. The security zone can be seen in the lower right corner of Internet Explorer.
The zone should read Intranet or Trusted Sites; if it reads Internet (as shown above) this is likely the cause of your credential popup issue. To resolve this simple add the URL of your SharePoint site to the appropriate zone (Intranet or Trusted).
The following screen shots demonstrate adding the site to the Trusted Zones:
NOTE: If your SharePoint site is NOT using SSL, make sure you uncheck the box Require server verification (https:) for all sites in this zone prior to adding it.
If you did this successfully, the security zone should now read Trusted Sites.
If you continue to get the user credential popup after making this change then you need to also check the settings for the Trusted Sites zone.
You want to make sure that the User Authentication > Logon is set to Automatically Logon with current user name and password is set. You can get to this setting by clicking on Trusted Sites and then clicking Custom Level and scroll right to the bottom.
Scenario 2 : Users are not part of the domain but have a valid user name and password
The best way to have a seamless experience with SharePoint in this scenario is to add the SharePoint server, user name, and password to the managed passwords feature of Windows. Once added, anytime you access a resource that matches that server name, Windows will automatically pass it the credentials thus eliminating the popup screens.
To access the managed password feature of Windows (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/306541), follow these steps:
1. Click Start, and then click Control Panel.
2. Open the User Accounts dialog box.
3. Open the Stored User Names and Passwords dialog box by clicking on the Manage my network passwords button
4. Click the Add button and type your SharePoint URL (without HTTP), user name, and password, for example:
5. Click OK
Now you should be able to access your SharePoint resources without being prompted for credentials since Windows will handle that for you automatically.
Obviously, the downside to this is if you change your password, you will need to come back here to update it or you may land up getting the popup screens again.
Hopefully this helps and if anyone else has any other tricks they have used to get around this, please feel free to let me know.
[Update]
Are you using Vista and none of the solutions above are solving your problem? Check out this Microsoft KB article: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/943280
Comments
Comment from Mills
Time April 8, 2008 at 1:38 am
Gr8!!!!! Thanks a lot.
Comment from Nilu
Time April 30, 2008 at 7:22 am
Thanks a lot for your help.
It works for me
Comment from Mel
Time July 15, 2008 at 9:52 am
This is great info appears to be working good!
I was just curious…does this create any other security concerns?
Comment from liebrand
Time July 15, 2008 at 11:56 am
Mel,
I am assuming you talking about the “Managed Password” method. The only issue you will have is if the users password changes, they will start receiving the username/password prompt again. They would have to then come back to “Managed Passwords” and change their password that is stored.
Comment from Tim O’Leary
Time November 24, 2008 at 1:53 pm
Neither of these remedies fixes my problem. I’m a member of the dyson.org domain and after I’ve logged into our sharepoint site and try to open a spreadsheet from a document library, I’m forced to login again. Do you have any other ideas?
Comment from liebrand
Time November 24, 2008 at 8:16 pm
Tim,
Perhaps a little more information about your environment and setup would allow me to better assist you. I am REALLY surprised none of these solved your problem but there could be something setup a little differently.
Paul
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Time January 18, 2009 at 10:35 am
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Comment from Marek Hlavac
Time March 10, 2009 at 2:02 am
Great article. However, I ran recently into a very strange issue: some users, when connecting through the terminal server (remote desktop) face a login dialog EACH time the page is reloaded – and what is even more strange, they have to click Cancel 2 times or OK (+enter credentials) 6 times. Anyone seen this so far?
Any suggestions would be strongly appreciated.
Marek
Comment from liebrand
Time March 10, 2009 at 7:13 am
Mark,
It sounds like there is something on the page that those users do not have access too (like an image, or something like that). I would recommend running something like Fiddler to see what is generating the 403 error (or likewise).
Paul Liebrand
Comment from Marek Hlavac
Time March 10, 2009 at 7:34 am
Hello Liebrand,
this sounds logical. However, there is nothing the users don’t get displayed after clicking Cancel 2 times. There are all pictures, webparts, links to pages (even if the users don’t have access to those pages – the links added manually to the quick launch are just not security trimmed), search bar etc.
I tried to run Fiddler, but I ended up with not enough privileges. I wonder if there is any portable version of Fiddler? This would save my poor life
Sharepoint logs mention often this error:
PermissionMask check failed. asking for 0×00000000, have 0×40000000
PermissionMask check failed. asking for 0×00000015, have 0×00000000
I think that it may have some connection, but have no idea how to trace what (file, URL…) is this error related to.
Anyway, if I add some of the problematic users to a particular Sharepoint group with higher permissions, the login dialog is gone…
Looks like I’ll have to persuade the customer to install Fiddler.
Best regards,
Marek.
Comment from liebrand
Time March 10, 2009 at 7:58 am
Mark
The symptoms definitely indicate a permissions issue (unrelated to the authentication pop-ups mentioned in this article). Definitely see if you can get Fiddler (or an equivalent) installed. This will answer your question relatively quickly.
Paul Liebrand
Comment from Marek Hlavac
Time March 10, 2009 at 8:45 am
Thank you very much. I will try it and let you know. It’s a little bit frustrating that Microsoft support are meditating on the logs I sent them 2 day ago (IIS, WSS, System) and nothing so far…
Well, let’s help them
I will let you know as soon as I have some results.
Best regards,
Marek.
Comment from Marek Hlavac
Time March 11, 2009 at 1:40 am
Good morning, Sir (or whatever time you currently have
),
I ran Fiddler and this is the result:
http://img23.imageshack.us/img23/990/fiddler.jpg
Well, now I understand. I just hope that lines 28 and 29 will disappear after we solve the 33-35 “.js” problem (this is our JS library used for some custom features).
Thank you VERY much for your advice. You are faster and “better” than MS support
Comment from Marek Hlavac
Time March 11, 2009 at 3:06 am
So, the problem was in a .js library that had insufficient NTFS permissions.
Now, it works. Thank you very much once again, you gave me to the proper direction.
Marek.
Comment from liebrand
Time March 11, 2009 at 6:16 am
Glad I could help.
Comment from Shafi
Time June 7, 2009 at 3:00 pm
Hi,
Despite though i added to trusted zone, the newly created site collection keep prompting for username/password. May i know what is wrong with server 2008? It perfectly works in server 2003.
Im running windows 2008×64 and installed MOSS (trial) with sp2 as standalone server.
The default installed site collection it works, but when you create a new one by going thru central admin, web application -> site collection, it won’t able to browse the new site.
Wasted couple of days but still got no solution. All features enabled. tried with disabling firewall too but its just doesn’t work.
Hope somebody have some solution.
Thanks.
Comment from Marek
Time June 7, 2009 at 9:22 pm
Hi Shafti,
try Fiddler.
Try connecting from other machine.
Try some IIS7 settings.
Kerberos authentication, if you use it, may require some addittional manual steps.
Marek
Comment from Anthony
Time August 11, 2009 at 8:07 am
Thanks! We had a visiting computer accessing our site and encountering the continued prompting for credentials. Adding to “Local Intranet” and setting to save passwords worked like a champ!
Comment from Paul Liebrand
Time August 11, 2009 at 8:40 am
Awesome! I am glad this post assisted you.
Comment from Kaustubh
Time March 2, 2010 at 6:27 am
Hi… Great Info.
Thanks a lot….
Comment from Sei Kal
Time March 5, 2010 at 10:59 am
Excellent suggestion. In my case, there was a gif which didn't even have read permissions for domain users. Thanks a lot man!
Pingback from Microsoft SharePoint WorkSpace 2010 richiede sempre la password – Il Blog di Papini Sascha
Time July 6, 2010 at 1:46 pm
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