The following error occurs when using Security Explorer to grant SharePoint permission across site collections:
[Target SharePoint Site name], [-2146233087] Server was unable to process request. ---> Group cannot be found.
In this example the error occurred when trying to Copy/Paste (Grant) the MedicalTech group in the VisualBasicDotNet site Full Control permission to the collections in the Medical Association site.
This is because Security explorer will not create the SharePoint group if it does not exist in the target site, so the grant permission fails because the group cannot be found.
This example shows that the MedicalTech group exists in the VisualBasicDotNet site but not in the Mediacl Assocaition site.
To resolve this issue, first create a new group with the same name in the target site. The MedicalTech group was created in the Medical Associations site in this example.
To create a new SharePoint group in Security Explorer Right click on the Target Site and click "SharePoint Groups"
Enter the name of the group that exits in the source SharePoint Site, in this example it is called MedicalTech.
Now when a Copy/Paste (Grant) permission is performed to the target site, in this example the Medical Association site, it completes successfully because the group exist.
The members of the group are not added with the Grant and must be manually added. A faster approach would be to add only one member to the new group and use the clone feature to add the other members.
Right click on the target site and select “Clone user or Group”, select the user currently in the new group as the source of the clone for each user in the original group. Select the “Clone group membership” option and begin the clone process.
All the members of the original group will be added to the new group.
