How do you identify orphaned apps in SharePoint server 2016

Question

How do you identify orphaned apps in SharePoint server 2016

UnderwoodMarlene-1858 135

Central Admin has an error "content databases contained orphaned apps." The orphaned app isn't identified in the error message.

I ran stsadm for each content database and cannot find any orphans.

Note: This error occurred after a hardware / storage failure.

Referenced article.

https://www.sharepointdiary.com/2011/07/delete-orphaned-site-collections-in-sharepoint.html

2 answers

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Answer 1

Teddie-D 8,640 Microsoft External Staff Moderator

Hi @UnderwoodMarlene-1858

Thank you for posting your question in the Microsoft Q&A forum.

The “orphaned apps” alerts in SharePoint Server 2016 can be especially challenging to resolve, particularly when they stem from prior hardware or storage failures. Unfortunately, there isn’t a supported GUI option or PowerShell command that will reliably identify these issues.

In most cases, the Health Analyzer or standard enumeration tools don’t detect them, because from SharePoint’s perspective the apps no longer exist in the site map or structure. However, remnants of the app installations may still remain in the SQL content databases, typically in tables such as AppInstallations or AppInstances, which causes the alerts to persist.

Some users have managed to identify orphaned apps by querying the database directly. This method is reported in several community posts:

Note: Microsoft is providing this information as a convenience to you. These sites are not controlled by Microsoft, and Microsoft cannot make any representations regarding the quality, safety, or suitability of any software or information found there. Please ensure that you fully understand the risks before using any suggestions from the above link.
It’s important to note that directly editing or deleting rows in SharePoint databases is not supported by Microsoft and carries significant risk. If you do explore this route, community guidance strongly recommends doing so only in a controlled environment, with full backups in place.
I hope this information is helpful.

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UnderwoodMarlene-1858 135 Reputation points

2025-12-02T19:48:10.9933333+00:00

In order to try and identify the orphaned applications/features, run Test-SPContentDatabase -identity {DB name} against your content databases.
Teddie-D 8,640 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2025-12-03T10:05:32.3966667+00:00

Hi @UnderwoodMarlene-1858
Thank you for the update.

You can run Test-SPContentDatabase against your content databases to attempt to find orphaned applications or features. This is a supported cmdlet and may catch some inconsistencies, but it usually does not detect orphaned apps that exist only as database records without site objects.

The AppInstallations table mainly contains GUIDs (App Instance ID, Site ID, Web ID, etc.) and does not store the site URL in a human-readable form. That’s why querying this table alone is not enough to identify which site the orphaned app belonged to.

To resolve a GUID back to a URL, you would need to cross-reference those IDs with other tables (for example, mapping SiteId or WebId to the site tables), which effectively turns this into a direct SQL investigation across multiple content database tables.
Teddie-D 8,640 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2025-12-04T05:08:31.59+00:00

Hi @UnderwoodMarlene-1858
Just checking in to see if the information above was useful to you. If you have any additional updates or need further assistance, don't hesitate to reach out. Warm thanks!
UnderwoodMarlene-1858 135 Reputation points

2025-12-04T13:51:32.0266667+00:00

The Test-SPContentDatabase identified the Orphan GUID. I looked at the other tables you mentioned, which few exist. I found some records in the AppInstallationProperty's InstallationId = orphan app GUID. Looking at all the matching InstallationId records, the container WebName record contains the AppName (which is ImportCSV), which is a Microsoft store app.

The MS tech gave me some commands to try to delete the orphan app, but no luck yet.

p.s. The app is installed on the site and is working, so I assume there were 2 unsuccessful installations causing the orphan. I also have an earlier backup of this Content DB (which I was in the middle of migrating to a new SPSE environment) and this orphan issue existed before the hardware outage. I'm not sure why Central Admin didn't report it earlier.

The AppInstallations's AppInstallationID column =orphan app GUID.

Answer 2

UnderwoodMarlene-1858 135

The Microsoft tech needs to file an escalation to get permission to manually delete the data from the tables. Today we looked at AppPackages, appSourceInfo, AppInstallations, AppDatabaseMetadata, AppInstallationProperty, AppLifecycleErrors to identify the records for the Instance (not the entire App) that needed to be deleted.

Feel free to close this item. Thank you for your assistance.

Teddie-D 8,640 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2025-12-05T05:05:17.44+00:00

Hi @UnderwoodMarlene-1858
Thank you for sharing your perspective.
As mentioned earlier, making direct edits or deletions in SharePoint databases is not a supported approach by Microsoft and involves significant risk. Although some community members may propose this method, it should only ever be performed in a test or controlled environment, and strictly with complete backups in place.

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How do you identify orphaned apps in SharePoint server 2016

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