Troubleshooting ‘Sorry, Apps Are Turned Off’ Errors In Sharepoint 2013
What Causes the “Sorry, apps are turned off” Error
The “Sorry, apps are turned off” error typically signifies insufficient entitlements configured in the SharePoint farm to allow apps to be enabled and run properly in site collections or at the web application level. There are a few common misconfigurations that can trigger this access denied style error even when apps functionality appears to be enabled in the SharePoint UI.
Insufficient App Permissions
Apps in SharePoint 2013 rely on a dedicated application catalog site at the root site collection of the web application to store and deploy apps globally across all site collections. To avoid access errors, administrators must have “Manage” permissions on this catalog. Farm account and ribbon depletion can also prevent proper app permissions.
Apps Disabled in Farm, Web Apps or Site Collections
Outside of catalog permissions, apps may fail to load if an administrator has actively blocked their usage via PowerShell or Central Admin settings. Checks should validate apps are enabled at the farm, associated web applications and site collection levels before troubleshooting further. The Get-SPAppState cmdlet reveals if global restrictions have been implemented.
Issues with App Management or Licensing Services
In distributed farms, the App Management service may not have started successfully on all SharePoint application servers, preventing apps from activating properly. Additionally, available app license allocations may have reached their quotas, blocking further instantiations which rely on the licensing component.
How to Check App Permissions and Settings
Diagnosing root causes for the error requires validating user permissions, reviewing if apps are globally enabled or restricted, and checking dependent services.
Verify Catalog Permissions
Use the SharePoint UI to validate user or group permissions at the root app catalog site for the web application returning errors. Farm and tenant administrators require “Manage” permissions to deploy apps.
Check App States via PowerShell
Connect to a SharePoint server in the farm via PowerShell and utilize Get-SPAppState to return if apps are enabled at the farm, web application and site collection levels. The cmdlet will reveal any global app restrictions in place.
Review Services and Licensing
The App Management service in the farm should have a “Started” status on all front end servers. Any licenses applied from the SharePoint Server Enterprise CAL may have exceeded allocated thresholds, review in the UI.
Enabling Apps and Fixing Permissions
Common remediations involve granting appropriate catalog permissions, using PowerShell to override app lockdowns, or configuring related services and licenses.
Grant Manage on App Catalog
Provision the “Manage” allow right on the app catalog site to the users or groups encountering the error. This can be accomplished in the UI at the site permissions page or via PowerShell’s Add-SPUser command.
Use Set-SPAppSiteSubscriptionName
If apps are disabled globally, run the Set-SPAppSiteSubscriptionName cmdlet to explicitly allow apps for the target site collection. This will override restrictions enabled at higher levels like the web application or farm.
Configure Services and Available Licenses
If the App Management service has not started, use Windows Services manager to trigger startup on all front end servers. Licensing quotas can be increased in SharePoint Central Administration’s Apps page to allow additional app instantiations.
Additional Troubleshooting Steps
If basic remediations around permissions, app states and services do not resolve the issue, try recycling application pools, redeploy marketplace solutions and validate event logs.
Recycle Pools and Clear Cache
Restart the SharePoint application pools via Internet Information Services Manager to purge and refresh configuration values. Also manually clear the distributed cache if the farm relies on object cache for app settings propagation.
Reinstall Marketplace Solutions
If the farm has issues enumerating available apps from Office 365 or the SharePoint Store, try to redeploy those prebuilt marketplace solutions from the solutions gallery in Central Admin.
Check Event Viewer Logs
The SharePoint ULS logs or event viewer contain detailed error information not shown to end users. Search for correlation IDs associated with app activation failures to pinpoint their root cause.
Example PowerShell Code to Enable Apps
Use these PowerShell examples to override site collection app restrictions inherited from parent web applications or the farm.
“`PowerShell
#Store reference to site collection in variable
$site = Get-SPSite https://mysite
#Set subscription name to app catalog site
Set-SPAppSiteSubscriptionName -Site $site -Name “AppCatalog”
#Start App Management Service instance if stopped
Start-Service -Name SPAppManagementService
“`
