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SharePoint folder shows "Couldn't access this folder" or "site" (grant admin consent)

SharePoint folder shows "Couldn't access this folder" or "site" (grant admin consent)

Applies to: SharePoint Connector and ikuTeam Files (Jira and Confluence)

Category: Authentication and permissions

Symptoms

When you try to connect a SharePoint site or folder, the app shows "Couldn't access this folder", or it cannot find a site, even though:

  • you can open the same site and folder normally in SharePoint on the web, and

  • other folders you connected earlier still work fine (they can also stop working).

You may also notice that a Microsoft Graph test against the same site returns Forbidden (HTTP 403).

Why this happens

The app reads your SharePoint content through the Microsoft Graph API, using an Azure AD (Microsoft Entra) Enterprise Application in your tenant called ikuteam. That application needs admin-consented Graph permissions to read and edit sites and files.

If those permissions are changed or removed, or the admin consent is missing, Graph refuses the request and the app cannot read the site or folder. This happens even when your own account has web access, because web access and API access are granted separately. Your personal access in the SharePoint web UI does not give the app the Graph permissions it needs.

The fix: grant admin consent

A SharePoint or Azure AD administrator can restore access in under a minute. This does not reset the app or disconnect your existing folders.

  1. Go to the Azure portal at https://portal.azure.com/.

  2. Open Enterprise Applications and search for ikuteam.

  3. Open the ikuteam application, then go to Security > Permissions.

  4. Select Grant admin consent and accept the prompt.

Then go back to the app in Jira or Confluence and connect the folder again. You may be asked to re-authenticate once, after which the connection works normally.

Permissions the app needs

The ikuTeam application needs these Microsoft Graph permissions:

  • Files.ReadWrite.All

  • Sites.ReadWrite.All

  • User.Read

  • offline_access

Please keep these permissions in place. Removing or altering them is the most common cause of "Couldn't access this folder".

Optional: confirm the cause with Graph Explorer

If you want to confirm the diagnosis before granting consent, you can reproduce the check in Microsoft Graph Explorer, signed in with the same account you use in the app.

  1. Open https://developer.microsoft.com/en-us/graph/graph-explorer and sign in.

  2. List your sites: GET https://graph.microsoft.com/v1.0/sites?search=*&$top=200 and look for the target site.

  3. Resolve a shared folder: GET https://graph.microsoft.com/v1.0/shares/u!{base64url-encoded-share-URL}/driveItem.

If these return Forbidden, add the Sites.ReadWrite.All and Files.ReadWrite.All scopes in the Graph Explorer permissions panel and run them again. When they succeed with the correct scopes, you have confirmed the fix is to grant those same permissions to the ikuteam app in Azure.

How to build the encoded folder URL (the u! share id)

The /shares/ endpoint needs the folder link encoded as a URL-safe Base64 string prefixed with u!. To build it:

  1. In SharePoint, open the folder and use Copy link to get a share URL (something like https://yourtenant.sharepoint.com/:f:/s/YourSite/...?e=...). A browser address-bar URL (the AllItems.aspx?id=... form) can resolve to the whole library instead of the folder, so a Copy link result is more reliable.

  2. Base64-encode that URL, then make it URL-safe: remove any trailing =, replace / with _ and + with -, and add u! at the start.

Terminal (macOS or Linux):

printf '%s' 'PASTE_FOLDER_URL_HERE' | base64 | tr '/+' '_-' | tr -d '=' | sed 's/^/u!/'

Use the result in the shares call, for example:

GET https://graph.microsoft.com/v1.0/shares/u!aHR0cHM6...L2ZvbGRlcg/driveItem

No share link handy? You can address the folder by path instead: GET https://graph.microsoft.com/v1.0/sites/yourtenant.sharepoint.com:/sites/YourSite:/drive/root:/Folder Name:/children

You can also encode the URL into Base64 using any AI agent like Gemini or Claude

 

Good to know

  • Search box vs Connect by URL. The search box in the connect view only filters the list of sites you can already see. It does not search for folders inside a site. To attach a specific folder, copy the folder URL from SharePoint and use Connect by URL.

  • Your connections are safe. Granting admin consent restores access without resetting the app registration, so your existing connected folders stay intact.

  • Web access is not the same as app access. Being able to open a folder in SharePoint on the web does not mean the app can read it. The app depends on its consented Graph permissions.

Still stuck?

If the error continues after granting admin consent, please reach out to us and include the folder URL, your app version, and, if possible, a HAR file of the failing attempt. We are happy to help you get it connected.