Many times, we suddenly face access denied issues which we know were working fine till we last checked. And now the hunt starts, common issues are when you access Sitecore Dashboard, Content Editor, etc. & you will get Access denied to specific Viewstate paths under App Data or your log files are not getting generated. Or any other exceptions showing an Access Denied issues.

Cause: The user access rights are corrupted.

Resolution: My favorite is to run the website on Network Service but that is not always acceptable so whichever steps we will follow for Network Service should be verified for the User used to host the website in IIS server.

1. Make the app-pool Identity for the website as Network Service.
   a. Go to IIS server > App-pools
   b. Select the website’s app-pool > Right click > Advanced Settings.
   c. Change the Identity to Network Service
   
   d. Click Ok
2. Go to wwwroot folder (C:\inetpub\wwwroot), select the website folder & go it’s properties
3. Go to the Security tab >> Click Edit
   
4. Click on Add.
   
5. Type Network Service and click on Check Names.
   
6. Once you click Check Names, click OK.
7. Check Full Control check box.
   
8. Click Apply > OK.

Once you have granted full control to Network service, reload the Sitecore instance and verify if the issue is resolved.

Note: In case you already have the permission granted to the website folder, please uncheck the full control check box and check it again. Apply the new changes so in case any internal folder’s access are revoked, that will be repaired and your issue will be resolved.

Thank you.. Keep Learning.. Keep Sitecoring.. 🙂