Forum Discussion
Invoke-PnPSiteTemplate AND Set-PnPDefaultColumnValues error since this morning
Since this morning we experience a blocking issue with Invoke-PnPSiteTemplate cmdlet which is failing as soon as there are lists included in a pnp site template (which is pretty much every template in our case). We see this behaviour on all of our own tenants and all customer tenants.
This is a very important part of our provioning engine so it's blocking all new sites & teams in all tenants.
Context
We have a provisioning engine that runs in Azure. It automatically creates SharePoint-sites and applies a configured PnP site template (either .pnp or .xml)
Expected behavior
Normally, the template gets applied correctly without any error
Actual behavior
An error occurs in our logging, also visible when reproducing this locally:
Error applying default column values
Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.ServerException: Exception of type 'Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.ServiceUnavailableException' was thrown.
Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.ClientRequest.ProcessResponseStream(Stream responseStream)
StackTrace: at Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.ListExtensions.SetDefaultColumnValuesImplementation(List list, IEnumerable1 columnValues) at Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.ListExtensions.SetDefaultColumnValues(List list, IEnumerable1 columnValues, Boolean overwriteExistingDefaultColumnValues) at PnP.Framework.Provisioning.ObjectHandlers.ObjectListInstance.ProvisionObjects(Web web, ProvisioningTemplate template, TokenParser parser, ProvisioningTemplateApplyingInformation applyingInformation) at PnP.Framework.Provisioning.ObjectHandlers.SiteToTemplateConversion.ApplyRemoteTemplate(Web web, ProvisioningTemplate template, ProvisioningTemplateApplyingInformation provisioningInfo, Boolean calledFromHierarchy, TokenParser tokenParser) at CallSite.Target(Closure , CallSite , Object , Object , Object , Object )
Steps to reproduce behavior
Create a PnP template
Apply the template, using invoke-pnpsitetemplate -Path "..."
We also see the same error happening when executing this cmdlet:
Set-PnPDefaultColumnValues -List "Documents" -Field Status -Value "MyDefaultValue" -Connection $pnpConnTargetSite
So it seems related...
anyone getting the same issues?
10 Replies
Looks like the issue has been resolved. I've already seen it is working on 4 tenants.
in the meantime confirmed by MSFT and a fix to CSOM is pushed, general availability in about 1 week, see more details here: https://github.com/pnp/pnpframework/issues/1280
EDIT: Seems working again 9/10/2026 at 2:20PM
Yes, I’ve been experiencing the exact same issue (PnPDefaultColumnValues) since yesterday. It appears that the issue is site-specific, as it works on some of our sites and document libraries but not all.Regarding the error message:
> Set-PnpDefaultColumnValues -List $list -Field $field -Value $default
Set-PnpDefaultColumnValues: Error applying default column values
The default value is "visually" applied to the list, as seen in the following URL:
/_layouts/15/ColumnDefaults.aspx?List={guid}
However, the default columns no longer work properly on the list.
If you remove all default columns and reapply them manually, the issue seems resolved.
Yes, we have also received alerts from our automations that the provisioning engines are down.
Is there a way to make Microsoft aware of this issue, since I am pretty sure that it is related to the specific api endpoint of SPO.
First reports with that error started around 1 PM yesterday, 9th Sept 2026.
Seems that not all requests to create RERs are failing but many.
8th Sept was Windows Update tuesday - could it be that Windows Server updates changed something in the Azure Cloud combined with some SharePoint Online changes which sum up to this error behavior?
We get Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.ServiceUnavailableException when we use APIs to create remote event receivers on lists or libraries for added, updated and deleting events
Same issue here.
It looks like this is caused due to the fact Microsoft is phasing out Remote Event receivers.
Also PnP PowerShell itself via Set-PnPDefaultColumnValues -list "Cars" -field "MAVConstructionYear" -Value "2019" is giving the same error:
Yes, I am also facing same issue when we set default values using SetDefaultColumnValues, It is giving exception like you mentioned but it is updating the values in sharepoint default values for columns.
Yes, I am also facing the same issue when setting default values using SetDefaultColumnValues. The default values are being applied to the fields only after the exception occurs.
Yes same issue occuring to me, been running fine for a few years.
