Applying Search Schema fails
Hi everyone, We've been fighting a SharePoint Online search issue at one of our customers since early July 2026. We've had a Microsoft Support case open for a few months, but it has hit a dead end. I'm posting here to find out whether others are seeing the same thing and whether anyone has found a workaround. Our setup An in-house ERP system syncs customers and projects to a SharePoint list, which serves as the provisioning master list. A provisioning engine (PnP PowerShell / PnP provisioning templates) creates a site for each item, using one of two templates: Customer site or Project site. During provisioning we apply: Property bag values at site level (for example, the account manager for a customer) Custom columns in the document libraries for document metadata SearchSettings in the XML template that map both the property bags and the columns to the default RefinableStringXX managed properties Some values link to managed metadata, and some are free text. This approach was designed together with the customer, and Microsoft Support confirmed that it is a supported implementation. The issue Applying the SearchSettings fails. Running Invoke-PnPSiteTemplate with the SearchSettings section returns one of these: Service unavailable now, please try again later. The request was canceled due to the configured HttpClient.Timeout of 100 seconds elapsing. Without SearchSettings, the template applies without problems. Even applying only the first line of the SearchSettings on a brand-new site causes the timeout. The Search Schema pages are extremely slow at both site collection and tenant level, much slower than in any other tenant we work in. The issue has now gotten worse. We can't create, modify or delete any managed property mapping, at either site collection or tenant level. Opening _layouts/15/selectcrawledproperty.aspx (for example, to edit RefinableString01) now always returns "Sorry, something went wrong. An unexpected error has occurred." What Microsoft Support told us At first, the case was pushed back as out of scope because we use PnP. After escalation, engineering confirmed that the behaviour matches a known issue: Search Schema pages load slowly when a large number of implicit properties and mappings exist. They confirmed it's not caused by misconfiguration on our side. However, there is no public documentation, no workaround, no fix and no ETA, and no further escalation path. They suggested we give feedback through the community, so here we are. Questions for the community Has anyone else run into this Search Schema latency or the "Service unavailable" error when applying SearchSettings, especially in tenants with many sites and mappings? Has anyone been able to reduce the number of implicit or crawled properties in a tenant, or "reset" the site-level search configuration, and did that help? Could this be related to the recent search migration issues reported in service health SP1393483 and in this thread? Are there any best practices or (unofficial) limits for the number of property bag values or library columns mapped to RefinableStrings across many sites? For example, does linking to managed metadata make it better or worse? Has anyone tried splitting the SearchSettings into smaller increments and applying them one by one? We're also looking at reducing the number of mappings and the number of sites that need search support. Still, it would be very helpful to understand the actual limit we're hitting, since this affects how we design future solutions as well. Thanks in advance for any insights!
Ability to schedule email of SharePoint post
We've started using SharePoint to create and send mass emails in our organization, but its a huge pain that I can't schedule them ahead of time to send at a specific time/date. Could you work on creating a way to schedule not just the publishing of a SharePoint news post, but when it is shared via email? That would be amazing.
SharePoint Online site template that includes multiple languages when is created?
I have one site template , but the multilanguage must be created page by page with translate option, ¿is there one way to create a template english/spanish to be ready from start , that the user can only create site from template and be ready with two or more languages?
Missing "search this library" bar in SharePoint
We have an office of (8) users on SharePoint and over the last week we've been experiencing the search functionality bar at top of page missing for handful of users and then reappearing later in the day. Is there a known issue regarding the search bar capability? Thank you!
SharePoint Migration Tool after failed copying
Hi, a user tried to migrate a local storage to SharePoint Online. He set up a sync between his Windows Explorer and the SharePoint library and did a plain copy of all folders & files from the network storage to the synced library. Now not all files or folders arrived on SharePoint but he already started to worked in the synced folder. Can I re-migrate fromn the network drive to SharePoint with the SPMT and keep the newer versions of the files? If so, how do I have to set up the SPMT? Thx and best regards
PnP Modern Search v4 multitext column search on a non queryable managed property
In order to use PnP Search, i tried to map a crawled property into the Refinablestring managed one, however all of them does not have or allow to use the "queryable" property. Results in Copilot and GPT prompts say it should be checked, already tried to change in the site collection and in only one site. When i tried to create a new managed property, couldn't make it "refinable" but "queryable" was available for selection. The use of the filtering in the PnP Search would be: (1)One Sharepoint library with choice and text columns filled with metadata regarding PDF documents from my org, like tecnical notes, laws, etc. This one is intended to have some kind of search inside the doc too. (2)One Sharepoint list that would contain a text column with entire sections of a manual and a column with the sharepoint link to it inside a page. Expected behavior is: User types text -> Finds section -> Redirection. This manual is stored in SP Online as a page with collapsed sections and has lots of images and text, so it probably will be moved into more than one page shortly, the links are generated when the text webparts get some kind of "Title" on it. Its also on a PDF and thats roughly 500 pages now. The PnP webparts used are search, search verticals and search results. Any ideas if i can make the Refinablestring queryable or create a new property thats refinable?Excel Desktop App hangs when attempting to open documents from SharePoint to edit
User attempts to open Excel Documents saved in SharePoint by selecting Edit in Desktop App. As the Excel Desktop App begins to open a message displays stating: We have opened this document in Microsoft Excel in your computer. However, the Excel App just hangs without fully opening (see Screenshot). No problem detected when opening the Excel Desktop app directly, Desktop App opens freely. Excel MS365 is up-to-date version 2609 build 16.0.20430 64 Bit (Before reinstall). I have uninstalled the MS365 Office packet and reinstall it directly from the User's Office Portal, to no avail.
SharePoint News Email “Content too large” issue – size limit clarification
Hi, We are currently trying to send a SharePoint News post via email and encountering the following error: “The contents of this page are too big to send in email.” We performed testing to understand the limitation and observed the following: Full newsletter (~5.29 MB) → ❌ Error Pages 1–12 (~3.11 MB) → ❌ Error Pages 1–11 (~2.80 MB) → ✅ Works Slight increase (~2.90 MB) → ❌ Error again ✅ Based on testing: Practical threshold seems around ~2.7–2.8 MB Above this, email rendering fails ❓ Questions: Is there a documented maximum size limit for SharePoint News email content? Is the limit based on: Total content size after rendering? Image count/size? Can this limit be configured or increased? What are the recommended best practices for image-heavy newsletters? ✅ Current understanding: It appears that the limitation is due to HTML email rendering size rather than just file size Any clarification or official guidance would be appreciated. Thanks.Hub Site association approval request fails with 403 Forbidden (previously working, regression)
Sites configured to require approval before joining our Hub Site are failing the association request with an HTTP 403 Forbidden error[browser DevTools Network tab}. This same workflow was functioning correctly as of [early August 2026]. Hub sites that do not require join approval continue to associate successfully — the failure is isolated specifically to the approval-required path. Steps to Reproduce As a site owner, go to Site Settings → Site Information (or Site Contents → hub association) on a site that is not yet associated with the hub. Attempt to associate it with [Hub Site URL], which has RequiresJoinApproval set to $true. Observe that the request fails immediately (or fails when the approver attempts to approve it — specify which point in the workflow fails). Repeat the same steps against a hub site that does not require approval — association succeeds without error. Expected Behavior The association request should be submitted and routed to the configured approver(s) for review, consistent with behavior observed as recently. Actual Behavior Request fails with HTTP 403 Forbidden. [browser DevTools Network tab - attached the HAR file for reference] Error Details HTTP Status: 403 Forbidden [browser DevTools Network tab - JoinHubSite(@v1)?@v1] Troubleshooting Already Performed Confirmed association without approval works (isolates the issue to the approval workflow specifically)Your SharePoint Sharing Might Break in 2026
A major change is coming and it’s not getting enough attention. Microsoft is moving away from simple OTP sharing and shifting to full Entra B2B. It sounds like a security upgrade, but it completely changes how external access works. This isn’t a small tweak: Existing sharing links may stop working as expected External users will go through new authentication flows Access will rely heavily on identity and guest policies Yes, you get better control and visibility but also more friction if your setup isn’t ready. If your organization relies on quick sharing links, this could become a real issue fast. Curious how others are handling this: Are you already using Entra B2B? Seeing any access or adoption issues? How are you balancing security vs usability?
