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Resolve auto-labeling failures in SharePoint and OneDrive files

  • Applies to: Microsoft Purview

Summary

This article describes why auto-labeling might fail for files on SharePoint and OneDrive for work or school. It provides a list of the failures that you might see in the Microsoft Purview portal and the recommended actions to resolve them.

About auto-labeling failures

After an auto-labeling policy identifies a file on SharePoint or OneDrive for work or school that matches its conditions, and scans it successfully, either the SharePoint service or the OneDrive service, as appropriate, applies the label. If the service is unable to complete applying the label, the auto-labeling operation is considered a failure.

Auto-labeling might fail due to any of the following reasons:

  • The file format doesn’t support auto-labeling.
  • The file is protected.
  • The label isn’t configured correctly.
  • SharePoint or OneDrive infrastructure conditions.

The failures that occur due to infrastructure conditions that affect the SharePoint or OneDrive service are transient. In this scenario, the service automatically retries the labeling operation. The other reasons that cause the failures need to be resolved manually.

Note

When a labeling operation fails, the affected file retains the same label from before the labeling or has no label if a label wasn’t assigned already.

Details of auto-labeling failures

You can see details about the failure reasons in the Microsoft Purview portal. To access the details, you must have one of the following roles:

  • Compliance Administrator
  • Compliance Data Administrator
  • Information Protection Admin
  • Information Protection Analyst

Use the following steps:

  1. Sign in to the Microsoft Purview portal.
  2. Select Information Protection > Auto-labeling.
  3. Select the name of the auto-labeling policy that you want to check for failures.
  4. To see a snapshot of the total number of auto-labeling failures for the last 30 days and the top three reasons for the failures, select the Overview tab, and scroll to the Labeling failures card.
  5. To see a list of files for which auto-labeling failed, select the Review items button in the Labeling failures card or select the Labeling failures tab.
  6. Select a file from the list and in the flyout pane that opens, select the Details tab.
  7. Make a note of the failure code that is specified in the Failure reason section.

Resolve auto-labeling failures

Select the failure code from the following table and follow the instructions provided in the Recommended action column to resolve the cause of the failure.

Tip

If multiple files that are processed by an auto-labeling policy fail with the same failure code, check the SharePoint Online service health dashboard for an active incident in the same time window before investigating further. A spike in the SqlThrottled\, TransientErrorStorageConnection\, or Unknown_SPException\ failure codes often corresponds to a known service event.

Failure code Description Recommended action
FileLocked Another user or process has locked the file. No action required. This operation is retried automatically.
FileCheckOut A user has the file checked out. No action required. This operation is retried automatically.
EncryptedFileNotSupported The file is protected by external encryption (for example, password protection or non-Microsoft encryption) that prevents label application. Remove the external encryption or password protection from the file to allow labeling.
FileNotSupported The file type isn't supported for sensitivity labeling. No action required. This file type doesn't support sensitivity labels.
FileExtensionNotSupported The file extension isn't supported for labeling. No action required. This file extension doesn't support sensitivity labels.
UnsupportedFileType PDF Labeling isn't enabled. Enable sensitivity labels for files in SharePoint and OneDrive.
CannotOverrideCurrentLabel The file already has a sensitivity label with equal or higher priority than the one the policy is trying to apply. No action required. The existing label takes precedence by design.
ZeroByteFile The file is empty (0 bytes). Label metadata can't be written to an empty file. No action required.
GetTagsFailure SharePoint couldn't read the existing label metadata from the file. No action required. This operation is retried automatically.
DisabledOrUnsupportedLabel The sensitivity label is disabled or not supported for this tenant. Verify that the label is published and active in your labeling policy.
RmsUnavailable Azure Rights Management was temporarily unavailable. This reason applies when the label also applies encryption. No action required. This operation is retried automatically.
InvalidFileName The file name is invalid. Rename the file to remove invalid characters or reduce the length of the file name.
Conflict A version or save conflict occurred because the file was being modified at the same time. No action required. This operation is retried automatically.
Transient A temporary infrastructure error occurred. No action required. This operation is retried automatically.
CancelledByEventHandler An event handler on the SharePoint site canceled the operation. If this reason persists, review custom SharePoint event receivers on the affected site. One of them is rejecting label-property updates.
UnauthorizedAccessException The system was denied access when attempting to modify the file. No action required. This operation is retried automatically.
Unknown_SPException An unclassified SharePoint error occurred. No action required. This operation is retried automatically. If you see this reason repeatedly for the same files, contact Microsoft Support.
TransientErrorStorageConnection A temporary storage connectivity error occurred. No action required. This operation is retried automatically.
GenericException An unexpected error occurred. No action required. This operation is retried automatically.
SqlThrottled SharePoint was throttling requests due to high database load. No action required. This operation is retried automatically.
DirectoryNotFound The folder no longer exists. No action required. The folder was deleted after the file was classified.
QuotaExceeded The site storage quota is exceeded. Free up storage on the site or increase the storage quota, and then rerun the policy.
FileNotFound The file no longer exists. No action required. The file was deleted or moved after it was classified.

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