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You can't start the SharePoint Foundation Web Application service

  • Article
  • Applies to:
    SharePoint Server 2013, SharePoint Server 2010

Symptoms

You can't start the SharePoint Foundation Web Application service in Microsoft SharePoint Server 2013 or Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010. The service gets stuck during startup, and the following error entry is logged in the ULS logs:

Provision of service failed. The process cannot access the file 'C:\inetpub\wwwroot\wss\VirtualDirectories\<web_app_name>\_app_bin\STSSOAP.DLL' because it is being used by another process. If this is a Web service, IIS must be restarted for the change to take effect. To restart IIS, open a command prompt window and type "iisreset /noforce".

Cause

The issue occurs because of an antivirus scan.

Resolution

Note

When the SharePoint Foundation Web Application service is stopped, you may lose web.config changes and other customizations. We recommend that you back up the C:\inetpub\wwwroot\wss\VirtualDirectories folder before you apply this fix.

To resolve the issue, follow these steps:

  1. Follow the guidance in KB 952167 to exclude certain folders from antivirus scanning.

  2. Run the following PowerShell commands to stop the SharePoint Foundation Web Application service:

    $service = Get-SPServiceInstance -Server $server | where-object {$_.TypeName -eq "Microsoft SharePoint Foundation Web Application"}  
Stop-SPServiceInstance $service

  3. After the SharePoint Foundation Web Application service is stopped, check whether there are any remnants of SharePoint sites in IIS Manager, and delete any existing sites from IIS Manager.

  4. Clear the SharePoint configuration cache. For the steps to do this, see this Developer article.

  5. Run the following command to provision the service:

    stsadm -o provisionservice -action start -servicetype spwebservice

More information

Still need help? Go to SharePoint Community.