SharePoint 2019 - Adding FBA Users to a SharePoint Group

Question

Hello,

Ive configured forms based authentication to my sharepoint 2019, however when i try to add form based authenticated users to a Sharepoint group, the people picker does not resolve the users, as below image:

Also, if I try to input the full email of the user, the people picker states multiple entries found, click to resolve, and when i try to add after resolving, it states could not resolve user.

Ive been stuck with this issue for a while and ive tried adding the peoplepicker wildcards to include the fbaprovider name and role, but with no luck. Appreciate if someone can help me with this.

Note: it works for AD Users, but not for FBA configured users

Answer 1

Hi @Walid El Rifai ,

I'm sorry you're in this situation. There are many reasons why this happens, let’s do some troubleshooting:

1. Check the FBA provider configuration:
   • Make sure that the FBA provider is properly configured in SharePoint. You can check this by going to Central Administration > Security > Specify Authentication Providers.
   • Make sure that the membership and role providers are correctly specified in the web.config file.
   • Check that the membership database is properly configured and that the FBA users have been added to it.
2. Verify user permissions:
   • Check that the FBA users have the necessary permissions to access SharePoint.
   • Make sure that the FBA users have been added to the appropriate SharePoint groups.
3. Use the "Check Names" button:
   • In the People Picker dialog box, click the "Check Names" button to see if it can resolve the FBA users.
   • If it can't, try manually typing in the user's email address or username in the format "FBAProviderName:UserName" or "FBAProviderName:Email".
4. Clear the SharePoint configuration cache:
   • Stop the SharePoint Timer Service.
   • Navigate to the "ProgramData\Microsoft\SharePoint\Config" folder on the SharePoint server.
   • Delete all the XML files in this folder.
   • Restart the SharePoint Timer Service.

After following these steps, try adding an FBA user to a SharePoint group again and see if the issue has been resolved.

For your reference:

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepoint/security-for-sharepoint-server/plan-user-authentication#forms-based-authentication

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepoint/security-for-sharepoint-server/plan-user-authentication#plan-for-forms-based-authentication

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/previous-versions/office/sharepoint-server-2010/ee806890(v=office.14)

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepoint/administration/configure-people-picker

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/answers/questions/178756/sharepoint2019-manage-forms-based-authentication-u

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