You receive an "Access denied" or a "Cannot complete this action" error message when you try to connect to a Windows SharePoint Services Web site (823278)

RESOLUTION

To resolve this issue, use one of the following methods as appropriate to your situation.

Method 1: If the User Is a Member of the Users Group

If the user is a member of the Users group in Windows, remove the existing user account from the site collection in Windows SharePoint Services, and then add the new user account that you re-created to the site collection. To do so, follow these steps:

1. Connect to the Windows SharePoint Services site by using a user account that has administrator permissions to the site collection.
2. Click Site Settings.
3. On the Site Settings page, under Administration, click Go to Site Administration.
4. On the Top-level Site Administration page, under Site Collection Administration, click View site collection user information.
5. Click to select the check box next to the user account that you want to remove from the site collection, and then click Remove Selected Users.
6. Click Yes when you are prompted to confirm the removal.
7. Click Site Settings.
8. On the Site Settings page, under Administration, click Go to Site Administration.
9. On the Top-level Site Administration page, under Users and Permissions, click Manage Users.
10. On the Manage Users page, click Add Users.
11. On the Add Users: SiteName page, in the Step 1: Choose users area, type the name of the user account that you want to add in the Users box.
    
    Make sure that you specify the name of the user by using the following format:

    DomainName\UserName

12. In the Step 2: Choose Site Groups area, click to select the check box next to the site group that you want to assign the user, and then click Next.
13. Confirm the user who you want to add to the site, specify the e-mail option that you want, and then click Finish.

Method 2: If the User is Member of the Domain Administration Group and Is Site Owner

If the user is a member of the Domain Administration group in Windows and is also listed as the site owner of the Windows SharePoint Services Web site, temporarily specify a different user account as the site owner, remove the temporary site owner, and then specify the new account that you re-created as the site owner. To do so, follow these steps:

1. Log on to Windows as an administrator with sufficient permissions to administer the site.
   
   Make sure that you do not log on by using the user account that you re-created.
2. Start Windows SharePoint Services Central Administration.
3. Under Security Configuration, click Manage site collection owners.
4. In the Site URL area, type the URL of the site collection in the Web Site URL box, and then click View.
5. In the Site Collection Owner area, type a different user account in the User name box to temporarily configure a new site owner.
   
   Make sure that you specify the name of the user account by using the following format:

   DomainName\UserName

6. Click OK.
7. On the Windows SharePoint Services Central Administration page, under Security Configuration, click Manage site collection owners.
8. Under Security Configuration, click Manage site collection owners.
9. In the Site URL area, type the URL of the site collection in the Web Site URL box, and then click View.
10. In the Site Collection Owner area, type the user account that you created in the User name box.
    
    Make sure that you specify the name of the user account by using the following format:

    DomainName\UserName

11. Click OK.

Method 3: If you use Microsoft Office Project Server 2003 features that rely on Windows SharePoint Services

If you are also using Microsoft Office Project Server 2003 features that rely on Windows SharePoint Services, following these steps to avoid receiving this error message when you access documents:

1. Log on to Project Web Access as an administrator .
2. Click the Admin tab, click Manage SharePoint Service, and then click Manage SharePoint Sites.
3. Click the Project name, and then click Synchronize.

Now, the new user profile that is updated in Windows is updated in Project Server. This new user profile is now synchronized with the Windows SharePoint Services profile.