Find and Delete Orphaned Alerts in SharePoint
Problem Description: In Short – When users leave your organization and removed from Active Directory (AD) they become orphans in SharePoint! Also their alerts!!
Why we care about them: To keep SharePoint clean, we’ve to remove em’ from all SharePoint sites. So, I’ve written a PowerShell script to scan all site collections of the web application, find and remove orphaned users from SharePoint here: Find and Delete Orphaned Users in SharePoint with PowerShell
Well, that solves the problem? kind of, but we have one more orphan to clean-up: SharePoint alerts created for orphaned users! Alright, Not a difficult task, Lets make use of the existing script, modify it little, run it before deleting orphaned users!
Add-PSSnapin Microsoft.SharePoint.PowerShell -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue
#Function to Check if a User exists in AD
function CheckUserExistsInAD()
{
Param( [Parameter(Mandatory=$true)] [string]$UserLoginID )
#Search the User in AD
$forest = [System.DirectoryServices.ActiveDirectory.Forest]::GetCurrentForest()
foreach ($Domain in $forest.Domains)
{
$context = new-object System.DirectoryServices.ActiveDirectory.DirectoryContext("Domain", $Domain.Name)
$domain = [System.DirectoryServices.ActiveDirectory.Domain]::GetDomain($context)
$root = $domain.GetDirectoryEntry()
$search = [System.DirectoryServices.DirectorySearcher]$root
$search.Filter = "(&(objectCategory=User)(samAccountName=$UserLoginID))"
$result = $search.FindOne()
if ($result -ne $null)
{
return $true
}
}
return $false
}
#Get All site collections of all web applications
$sites = Get-SPWebApplication | Get-SPSite -Limit All
#Iterate through each site collection
foreach($site in $sites)
{
Write-Host "Processing Site:"$site.Url -ForegroundColor Magenta
foreach($Web in $site.AllWebs)
{
#Arrays to Hold Orphaned Alerts & Users
$OrphanedAlerts = @()
$AlertUsers = @()
#Get all Alerts created on the web
$WebAlerts = $web.Alerts
#Get Unique Users from All Alerts
$AlertUsers = $web.Alerts | foreach { $_.User } | Select-Object -Unique
#Check if any user with alerts is :Orphan!
If($AlertUsers.length -gt 0)
{
foreach($AlertUser in $AlertUsers)
{
#Write-host "Checking User:"$AlertUser
#Check if the user is valid - Not Orphan
$UserName = $AlertUser.UserLogin.split("\") #Get User Name from : Domain\UserName
$AccountName = $UserName[1] #UserName
if ((CheckUserExistsInAD $AccountName) -eq $false)
{
$OrphanedAlerts+=$AlertUser.Alerts
}
}
if($OrphanedAlerts.Length -gt 0)
{
Write-Host "Total No. of Orphaned Alerts Found:" $OrphanedAlerts.Length -ForegroundColor Red
#Delete each orphaned alert
foreach ($OrphAlert in $OrphanedAlerts)
{
write-host "`nOrphaned Alert:" $OrphAlert.ID" on "$web.Url "List:" $OrphAlert.ListUrl "User:"$OrphAlert.User
Write-Host "Deleting Orphaned Alert..."
#$WebAlerts.Delete($OrphAlert.ID)
}
}
}
}
}
This PowerShell script scans and deletes all alerts created for Orphaned users. Please note, I’ve commented out the line:
#$WebAlerts.Delete($OrphAlert.ID)
Just run the script to see how many alerts on what lists & libraries, Un-comment the above line by removing the # to actually remove orphaned alerts in SharePoint.
any idea why getting below error
Exception calling “GetDirectoryEntry” with “0” argument(s): “Unknown error (0x80005000)”
At line:16 char:4
+ $root = $domain.GetDirectoryEntry()
+ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+ CategoryInfo : NotSpecified: (:) [], MethodInvocationException
+ FullyQualifiedErrorId : ActiveDirectoryOperationException
Exception calling “GetDomain” with “1” argument(s): “The specified domain does not exist or cannot be contacted.”
At line:15 char:10
+ $domain = [System.DirectoryServices.ActiveDirectory.Domain]: …
+ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+ CategoryInfo : NotSpecified: (:) [], MethodInvocationException
+ FullyQualifiedErrorId : ActiveDirectoryObjectNotFoundException