Apply-PnPProvisioningTemplate : The specified user c:0t.c|tenant|5*****c could not be found

Question

I want to copy a site collection from one tenant to another. insdie the source i run this command:-

Get-PnPProvisioningTemplate -Out c:\template20.pnp -IncludeSiteCollectionTermGroup

inside the destination i run this command:-

Apply-PnPProvisioningTemplate -Path c:\template20.xml

but on the Apply-PnPProvisioningTemplate i got this error:-

PS C:\windows\system32> Apply-PnPProvisioningTemplate -Path c:\template20.xml WARNING: ListInstance Style Library is a Style Library of a site with NoScript enabled and will be skipped Apply-PnPProvisioningTemplate : The specified user c:0t.c|tenant|5*****c could not be found. At line:1 char:1 + Apply-PnPProvisioningTemplate -Path c:\template20.xml + ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + CategoryInfo : WriteError: (:) [Apply-PnPProvisioningTemplate], ServerException + FullyQualifiedErrorId : EXCEPTION,SharePointPnP.PowerShell.Commands.Provisioning.Site.ApplyProvisioningTemplate

Any advice please? now the 2 tenants do not share the same users, so how i can skip applying the users?

Thanks

Answer 1

You can open the .xml file in a text/code editor and do a search & replace with a corresponding user from your second tenant.

There are a few main sections that can include users in the provisioning template. If you do not need to provision these you can remove the whole section.

These are:

1. <pnp:SiteDesigns />
2. <pnp:Security />
3. <pnp:Lists /> (*)
4. <pnp:TermGroups />
5. <pnp:ClientSidePages /> (*)

(*) = If they include lists/pages with unique permissions

Answer 2

We will face this issue when we have already created the site with the group and there trying to run the Apply-PnPProvisioningTemplate command- with the new site this issue will not come.

In order to work with the current template, we need to do few changes in the PnP template before running the Apply-PnPProvisioningTemplate command.

Sample PnP Template:

<pnp:Security AssociatedOwnerGroup="{sitetitle} Owners" AssociatedMemberGroup=" 

{sitetitle} Members" AssociatedVisitorGroup="{sitetitle} Visitors">

Now this can be resolved if we change the Owner field from Owner="{associatedownergroupid}" to Owner="{sitetitle} Owners" as shown below.

<pnp:SiteGroup Title="{sitename} Field Limited" Description="" Owner="{sitetitle} Owners" AllowMembersEditMembership="false" AllowRequestToJoinLeave="false" AutoAcceptRequestToJoinLeave="false" OnlyAllowMembersViewMembership="true" />

How to reproduce this issue:

1. Create a SharePoint group on a team site. Any custom group other than the default three groups.
2. Go to groups settings and change the newly created group's owner as the site's owner's group
3. Get the new provisioning XML using Get-PnPProvisioningTemplate Command
4. When we apply the template using apply provisioning command, the custom group will not get created on the newly provisioned site and provisioning fails to give below error: "The specified user 3 not found"

Source:

Issue while applying PnP site provisioning Powershell -The specified user 3 could not be found. #2112