Note: This article was originally published in 2013. Some steps, commands, or software versions may have changed. Check the current Sharepoint 2013 documentation for the latest information.

In this step-by-step guide, you’ll learn resolve issue . SharePoint 2013 introduced social features, improved search, cross-site publishing, and enhanced mobile browsing experiences.

Prerequisites

Before you begin, make sure you have:

  • SharePoint Server 2013 or later
  • Farm administrator or site collection admin access
  • PowerShell with SharePoint snap-in

How to: Resolve issue “(http://www.microsoft.com “Microsoft”).Office.Server.UserProfiles.PersonalSiteCreateException: A (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Failure “Failure”) was encountered while attempting to create the site.” while using SharePoint 2013

I am honestly starting to ask myself, who approved this to be (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_release_life_cycle “Software release life cycle”)?!? lol. Anyway, on a fresh SharePoint 2013 installation I am encountering issues when trying to follow a site. As you probably know when you first try to follow a site SharePoint 2013 creates a personal site for the user in order to share all that “Social” content and work as a portal through which you can manage everything you follow, etc. So, when I clicked on the follow button an exception was thrown on my Event log that indicated SharePoint was unable to create that personal site. From a users standpoint all you will notice is that everytime you try to follow you are taken to that screen that reads:

Wait a minute

To follow documents or sites, we need to get a couple of things set up. This can take a few minutes to complete, and once it’s done, you’ll need to come back to this site and try following again.

Get startedCancel

furthermore the second time around you click “Get started” you’ll come across this error on your personal site:

We’re sorry. Something went wrong with your My Site setup. Please try again later or contact your help desk.

So what to do? I’m not sure yet, I need to ask Microsoft to get back to me on this However the following did the trick for me I just need to get Microsoft to take a look at this in case something else is broken:

  Below is a sample of the (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Error_message “Error message”) you might be encountering in your event logs:  

Log Name: Application Source: (http://sharepoint.microsoft.com “Microsoft SharePoint”) Products-SharePoint Portal Server Date: 20/03/2013 06:08:58 p. m. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Event_Viewer “Event Viewer”): 5187 Task Category: Administration Level: Error Keywords: User: Computer: Description: My Site creation failure for user ‘DOMAIN(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_%28computing%29 “User (computing)”)’ for site url ‘http://sharepoint2013/my/personal/USERNAME’. The exception was: Microsoft.Office.Server.UserProfiles.PersonalSiteCreateException: A failure was encountered while attempting to create the site. at Microsoft.Office.Server.UserProfiles.UserProfile.<>c__DisplayClass2.b__0() at Microsoft.SharePoint.SPSecurity.<>c__DisplayClass5.b__3() at Microsoft.SharePoint.Utilities.SecurityContext.RunAsProcess(CodeToRunElevated secureCode) at Microsoft.SharePoint.SPSecurity.RunWithElevatedPrivileges(WaitCallback secureCode, Object param) at Microsoft.SharePoint.SPSecurity.RunWithElevatedPrivileges(CodeToRunElevated secureCode) at Microsoft.Office.Server.UserProfiles.UserProfile.CreateSite(String strRequestUrl, Boolean bCollision, Int32 overrideCompatLevel, Int32 lcid). Event Xml: xmlns=“http://schemas.microsoft.com/win/2004/08/events/event”> 5187 15 2 1 0 0x4000000000000000 6029 Application SharePoint2013 UserID=” ” /> TPJC http://sharepoint2013/my/personal/USERNAME Microsoft.Office.Server.UserProfiles.PersonalSiteCreateException: A failure was encountered while attempting to create the site. at Microsoft.Office.Server.UserProfiles.UserProfile.<>c__DisplayClass2.<CreateSite>b__0() at Microsoft.SharePoint.SPSecurity.<>c__DisplayClass5.<RunWithElevatedPrivileges>b__3() at Microsoft.SharePoint.Utilities.SecurityContext.RunAsProcess(CodeToRunElevated secureCode) at Microsoft.SharePoint.SPSecurity.RunWithElevatedPrivileges(WaitCallback secureCode, Object param) at Microsoft.SharePoint.SPSecurity.RunWithElevatedPrivileges(CodeToRunElevated secureCode) at Microsoft.Office.Server.UserProfiles.UserProfile.CreateSite(String strRequestUrl, Boolean bCollision, Int32 overrideCompatLevel, Int32 lcid)

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Summary

You’ve successfully learned resolve issue . If you run into any issues, double-check the prerequisites and ensure your Sharepoint 2013 environment is properly configured.