SharePoint OnPremises – resolving issue – after migration to SharePoint 2013, three-time credentials asked while accessing the web application from the server and then blank page – DisableLoopbackCheck

Hi All,

Greetings for the day 🙂 LIFE IS BEAUTIFUL 🙂

Background : We are migrating our SharePoint 2010 application to SharePoint 2013. We were using content database attachment method. So as per the approach we have followed following steps

• We have restored SharePoint 2010 databases to SharePoint 2013 database server
• Created new web application with our custom header in SharePoint 2013 environment with the same header as in SharePoint 2010
• Removed the respective content database of new web application so that we can mount our required restored SharePoint 2010 database
• Successfully deployed our custom farm solution to new SharePoint 2013 web application
• Executed Test-SPContentDatabase CMDLET against new SharePoint 2013 web application to verify any issues, verified the logs. Corrected some minor issues and seems to be ALL IS WELL 🙂
• Executed Mount-SPContentDatabase CMDLET against new SharePoint 2013 web application, database is mounted successfully 🙂
• As all required steps performed, next step is Visual Upgrade but before Visual Upgrade, need to make sure at least sites are opening in existing UI version

Issue / Error : After successful database mount when we try to access our new SharePoint 2013 web application, credentials are asked, entered the valid credentials but still credentials are prompted repetitively at least 3 times and after 3 times noting happens. Only blank page remain opens

There is no as such error or exception

More Details :

• For our new SharePoint 2013 web application we are using custom header
• Since we are in between migration, we are trying to access our SharePoint 2013 site from server itself
• We have added host file entry for our web application on server

Solution / Approach :

• There were two approaches / solutions to resolve this issue
  •  Specify the host names in the registry – BackConnectionHostNames (more secure and recommended approach for PRODUCTION servers)
  • Disable the loopback check – DisableLoopbackCheck (less secure approach and recommended for DEVELOPMENT / TEST environments)
• In our case, for time being since we were still in testing mode, we went for second approach – we need to create a DWORD registry key called DisableLoopbackCheck and set it to 1

Following are the steps to add the respective registry key manually :

• Launch “Run” menu or “Windows + R“
• Type the command “REGEDIT” as in above Fig
• Above command will open the registry editor as

• Expand the node “Computer -> HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE -> CurrentControlSet -> Control” as in below fig

• Locate the key “Lsa” as in below Fig

• Add new DWORD entry

• Add entry for “DisableLoopbackCheck” entry as in below fig

• Note : We need to restart the server to have this change in place
• Once server is restarted issue is resolved

We have also option to add registry entry using PowerShell. I’ll share PowerShell CMDLET in next upcoming article 🙂

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