Emergency troubleshooting tips

From time to time, you may encounter system issues with your ThoughtFarmer intranet that require technical intervention. This guide outlines common troubleshooting scenarios and step-by-step instructions to resolve them efficiently.  If you walk through these steps and the issue persists, please submit a formal support request via our Helpdesk

A "404 Not Found" or "503 Service Unavailable" message is displayed

This behavior typically indicates that either the Internet Information Services (IIS) web site or its associated Application Pool has stopped running.

Resolution Steps

• Access the Web Server: Log into the underlying Windows Server hosting your ThoughtFarmer instance (or contact your internal infrastructure administrator).
• Open IIS Manager: Navigate to Administrative Tools and open Internet Information Services (IIS) Manager.
• Verify Site Status:
  • In the connections pane, locate your ThoughtFarmer site.
  • If the site is stopped, a red stop icon will appear over the site name. Right-click the site and select Start.
• Verify Application Pool Status:
  • Click on Application Pools in the left-hand navigation pane.
  • Locate the specific application pool assigned to your ThoughtFarmer site.
  • If it displays a stopped symbol, select it and click Start in the Actions pane.
• Validate: Once both components are running, refresh your browser to verify that the intranet loads successfully.

Total outage (No users can access the intranet)

For On-Premise / Active Directory deployments

If your organization utilizes Active Directory (AD) and a systemic failure occurs, a synchronization or administrative error may have flagged your entire user base as inactive.

Database Modification Risk 

Direct database modifications bypass application-level safeguards. Ensure you have a verified backup of your database before executing manual UPDATE statements.

• Verify Inactive Status: Run the following query against your ThoughtFarmer database to determine if all users have been disabled (0 denotes inactive):

• SELECT * FROM [user] WHERE isactive = 0;

• Manually Activate an Administrator Account: To regain access to the application layer for further troubleshooting, manually activate at least one administrative user ID using this query:

• UPDATE [user]
  SET isactive = 1
  WHERE userid = <target_user_id>;

  • (Replace <target_user_id> with the literal integer of the user account without brackets or quotes.)
• Recycle the Application Pool: For this database-level change to take effect immediately, open IIS Manager and Recycle the ThoughtFarmer Application Pool.  
• Force a Synchronization Reset: Log into ThoughtFarmer using the activated account.
  • Navigate to Administration Panel > Users & Security > Employee Directory Connector.
  • Run a full manual synchronization with Active Directory to properly restore and update status states for all remaining users.

For All Deployments (Cloud & On-Premise)

If database states are healthy but connection failures persist, check the system environment logs:

• Open the Event Viewer on the web server.
• Navigate to Windows Logs > Application.
• Filter the log for warnings or errors related to your database engine (e.g., SQL Server). Look for critical exceptions such as:
  • Connection to SQL server lost
  • Invalid credentials to connect to SQL server

A single user is unable to access the intranet

For Active Directory Users

If an individual receives an "Access Denied" error or is forced into a Guest profile role, use the logic branch below based on your configuration:

If "Automatic User Creation" is Enabled

• Verify Group Membership: Confirm that the employee belongs to the exact security group synced with ThoughtFarmer. You can check the target group name under Administration Panel > Users & Security > Employee Directory Connector.
• If the user is missing from the AD Group: 
  • Add the user to the appropriate group within Active Directory.
  • Return to the Employee Directory Connector page in ThoughtFarmer.
  • Under Synchronization Settings > On-Demand Synchronization, execute a Bulk create users sync.
• If the user is already in the AD Group: Check for duplicate records caused by a name change or UPN modification in Active Directory.
• If a duplicate profile exists, safely delete the newly generated duplicate profile by following our Duplicate users created by EDC sync documentation.
• Clear Session Cache: If credentials fail to clear or pass properly after fixing the group structure, perform a command-line iisreset or restart the web server during a scheduled maintenance window.

If "Automatic User Creation" is Disabled

• Manual Provisioning: Ensure an active, populated profile has been explicitly created within the ThoughtFarmer directory before the user attempts their initial login.

Search queries or the Employee Directory are unresponsive

If search functionality or directory lookups fail to return entries, your index cluster or server environment may be blocked.

Rebuild the Search Index

• Navigate to Administration Panel > Search > Search Settings.

• Select Rebuild Index > Rebuild Index Now > Delete index before rebuild.

• Monitor the Rebuild:

  • On-Premise Environments: You can track the rebuild's progress status directly on the Search Index Settings UI screen. For a detailed trail, check Administration Panel > Logs & Statistics > System Logs for completion verification.

  • Note: The duration of this process scales relative to the volume of your hosted data.

Configure antivirus / security exclusions

If search files break continuously post-rebuild, security software may be locking essential file streams. Ensure your server's endpoint protection or antivirus software contains explicit directories exclusions for:

• The primary ThoughtFarmer index data storage path.

• The resized images caching directory.

Useful troubleshooting documentation

For further configuration details, please consult our structural guides:

• Active Directory synchronization tasks
• Active Directory basic settings
• Steps to take when a user changes their name
• Search Index