--- title: "Troubleshooting Discussions: Not Configured, Board Not Found and Permission Errors" description: "Troubleshooting guide for the Vitextra Discussions web part: the Not Configured screen on a published page, the message \"The selected board was not found\", \"You do not have permission to create lists on this site\", a missing New topic or Moderation button, Access denied errors, an empty Existing board option, the Discussions Activity web part that disappears, and the license message — with the check and the fix for each." url: https://vitextra.com/en/support/kb/10429 language: en published: 2026-11-02 modified: 2026-11-01 products: - "Discussions" author: "Lidija Reising" tags: ["Discussions not configured", "selected board was not found", "no permission to create lists on this site", "Discussions web part error", "New topic button missing", "Moderation button missing", "Access denied discussion board", "Discussions Activity web part not showing", "Vitextra Discussions troubleshooting"] --- # Troubleshooting Discussions: Not Configured, Board Not Found and Permission Errors Troubleshooting guide for the Vitextra Discussions web part: the Not Configured screen on a published page, the message "The selected board was not found", "You do not have permission to create lists on this site", a missing New topic or Moderation button, Access denied errors, an empty Existing board option, the Discussions Activity web part that disappears, and the license message — with the check and the fix for each. ## Overview Most problems with [Discussions](https://vitextra.com/en/products/discussions) come down to one of three things: the web part is not bound to a board, the lists behind the board are missing or inaccessible, or the user lacks a permission on the site. This article goes through the messages and symptoms in the order in which they are usually met, from the first setup to daily use, with a check and a fix for each. It is written for the page editor and the site owner. Problems with posts that readers cannot see, with uploads and with counters have their own articles, linked at the end. ## Start here: what do you see? | What you see | Go to | |---|---| | *Not Configured* and *The web part still needs to be configured...* on a published page | [Not Configured](#not-configured) | | *You do not have permission to create lists on this site. Ask the site owner to set up the board.* | [No permission to create lists](#no-permission) | | **Existing board** is greyed out, only **New board** is offered | [No existing board offered](#no-existing-board) | | *The selected board was not found. Open the page in edit mode and pick another one.* | [Board not found](#board-not-found) | | *Access denied.* or another technical message in a red bar | [Access denied and other errors](#access-denied) | | No **New topic** button; **Like** and **Reply** are disabled | [Missing buttons](#missing-buttons) | | No **Moderation** or **Import classic board** button | [Missing buttons](#missing-buttons) | | The **Discussions Activity** web part is not on the published page | [Activity web part disappears](#activity) | | *We hope you enjoyed your free trial. Buy it now to keep it working.* | [The license message](#license) | ## Not Configured **Symptom.** Readers see the heading *Not Configured* and the text *The web part still needs to be configured. Please open the page in edit mode and provide the necessary information.* **Cause.** The web part is not bound to a board. It remembers the board and the ids of the `Discussions Boards`, `Discussions Topics` and `Discussions Posts` lists in its properties; if any of them is empty, the setup screen is shown instead of the board. This happens when the page was published before **Create board** or **Use board** was clicked, when the page was created from a template or copied, or when the web part was added to a page of **another site**: list ids belong to the site where the board was created. **Fix.** Edit the page and select the web part. The setup screen offers **New board** (create a board; the lists are created on the site if they do not exist yet) and **Existing board** (pick one of the boards of this site). Click **Create board** or **Use board**, then republish the page. The steps are in [KB10391. How to Add and Configure the Discussions Web Part](https://vitextra.com/en/support/kb/10391). ![The setup screen of the web part in edit mode](https://static.vitextra.com/articles/10429/board-setup-en.png) *The setup screen of the web part in edit mode* In Microsoft Teams the same screen appears when a tab is added: the tab configuration opens the property pane of the web part on the team's SharePoint site, and the board must be created or chosen there. See [KB10393. How to Add Discussions to Microsoft Teams](https://vitextra.com/en/support/kb/10393). ## No permission to create lists **Symptom.** Clicking **Create board** shows *You do not have permission to create lists on this site. Ask the site owner to set up the board.* **Cause.** The first board of a site needs the five lists to be created, and that requires the **Manage Lists** permission on the site (members of the site **Owners** group, or the **Edit** and **Full Control** levels). The page editor has only **Contribute** or a custom level without Manage Lists. The same message appears when the site has the three main lists from an earlier version but still lacks `Discussions Subscriptions` or `Discussions Assets`, because they are created at the same step. **Fix.** Ask a site owner to open the page in edit mode and click **Create board** once. After the lists exist, any page editor can add further web parts and pick a board with **Use board** without Manage Lists. Permissions are explained in [KB10408. Permissions in Discussions: Who Can Read, Post and Moderate](https://vitextra.com/en/support/kb/10408). 📝 **Note** Manage Lists is checked on the **site**, not on a list. A user who was given Full Control on the `Discussions Boards` list only, without the site-level permission, still sees this message. ## No existing board offered **Symptom.** On the setup screen the **Existing board** option is disabled and only **New board** can be chosen. **Cause.** The site has no boards yet, or the web part could not find the Discussions lists on this site. Lists are recognized by their hidden marker columns rather than by their titles, so a renamed list is still found; a list restored from another site, or a list deleted and recreated by hand with the same name, is not. **Fix.** If this is a new site, simply create the first board. If boards exist on the site, check that the `Discussions Boards` list is still present (**Site contents**) and that the current user can read it. If a list has been deleted, restore it from the site recycle bin, as explained in [KB10411. Where Discussions Stores Your Data: Lists, Columns and Privacy](https://vitextra.com/en/support/kb/10411). ## Board not found **Symptom.** The web part shows the red bar *The selected board was not found. Open the page in edit mode and pick another one.* and no topics. **Cause.** The web part could not read the board item it is bound to. Typical reasons: - The board was **deleted** from the `Discussions Boards` list, or the list itself was deleted. - The user has **no access** to the `Discussions Boards` list: the list stopped inheriting permissions from the site, or the page is shared more widely than the site. - The page, or a page template that contains the web part, was **copied to another site**; the stored list ids point to lists that do not exist there. **Fix.** Restore the deleted board or list from the site recycle bin, or restore the inherited permissions on the list. If the board is really gone, edit the page, open the property pane and choose another board in the **Board** drop-down of the **Board** group; if the drop-down is empty, remove the web part from the page, add it again and go through the setup screen. On a page copied to another site, always remove and re-add the web part. ![Choosing another board in the property pane](https://static.vitextra.com/articles/10429/property-pane-board-en.png) *Choosing another board in the property pane* ## Access denied and other errors **Symptom.** A red message bar with *Access denied.*, *Sorry, something went wrong. Please refresh the page and try again.* or a technical text from SharePoint. **Causes and fixes.** - **The user has no access to a list.** The web part shows the message that SharePoint returns. The five lists inherit the site's permissions unless someone broke the inheritance; open **Site contents**, each list's **Settings → Permissions for this list**, and restore inheritance or grant the audience at least **Read**. - **Temporary problem.** *Sorry, something went wrong...* is the generic text shown when a request fails without a detailed message, for example during a network interruption. Reload the page; if it persists, note the exact time and contact support. - **The list view threshold.** The message *The attempted operation is prohibited because it exceeds the list view threshold* appears when a query cannot use an index, typically a search on a board with many thousands of topics. See [KB10427. Limits and Performance: Large Boards, Long Threads and the List View Threshold](https://vitextra.com/en/support/kb/10427). - **A column was deleted.** If a site owner removed one of the `Vtx` columns from a list, requests fail with a message naming the column. Adding a column with the same name by hand does not help, because the web part identifies its columns by fixed ids. Contact Vitextra support for the column definition with the original id, which an administrator can add back with PnP PowerShell; if the list itself was deleted, restore it from the recycle bin instead. ## Missing buttons **Symptom.** Some users do not see the **New topic** button, cannot **Like** or **Reply**, or do not see **Moderation** and **Import classic board**. **Cause.** The buttons depend on the user's permissions on the site, not on a setting: | Button or action | Required permission | |---|---| | Read topics and replies | **Read** | | **New topic**, **Reply**, **Like**, **Follow**, **Report**, **Attach file**, inline images | **Add Items** (Contribute, Edit, Full Control) | | **Moderation**, **Pinned**, **Featured**, **Locked**, **Approve**, **Edit** and **Delete** of other people's posts | **Manage Lists** (Edit, Full Control) | | **Import classic board** | **Manage Lists** and the page in **edit mode** | **Fix.** Add the user to the site **Members** group for posting, or to **Owners** for moderating. Visitors with Read never see the posting buttons, by design. If the **Import classic board** button is missing for an owner, edit the page first; the importer is deliberately available only in edit mode. ## The Discussions Activity web part disappears **Symptom.** The **Discussions Activity** web part is visible in edit mode but not on the published page, or shows *The web part needs a board to show...* in edit mode. **Cause.** On a published page the Activity web part hides itself completely when it has nothing to show: the site has no Discussions lists, the chosen board has no approved topics yet, or the user cannot read the `Discussions Topics` list. In edit mode it stays visible so that it can be configured. **Fix.** Create a board on the same site (the Activity web part lists boards of its own site only) and post the first topic; check the **Board** drop-down of the web part and the **Board page URL** so that links open the board. See [KB10415. Showing Recent Discussions on Any Page with the Discussions Activity Web Part](https://vitextra.com/en/support/kb/10415). ## The license message **Symptom.** The whole web part is replaced by *We hope you enjoyed your free trial. Buy it now to keep it working.* with a **Buy It** link. **Cause.** The 30-day trial has ended, or no subscription is assigned to this tenant. Nothing in the configuration of the web part or the lists causes this message, and the board's content is untouched. **Fix.** See [KB10434. Discussions Licensing: Trial, Activation and Plans](https://vitextra.com/en/support/kb/10434) and the general article [KB10365. Why Does a Vitextra Web Part Show "We Hope You Enjoyed Your Free Trial"? License Messages and Fixes](https://vitextra.com/en/support/kb/10365). ❗ **Important** Removing the solution from the app catalog or from the site does not delete the lists, so a reinstalled web part can be bound to the same boards with **Use board**. Deleting the lists, on the other hand, deletes every topic and reply; empty the recycle bin only when you are sure. See [KB10362. How to Remove a Vitextra Solution from SharePoint Online and Microsoft Teams](https://vitextra.com/en/support/kb/10362). ## Still not solved Write to [Vitextra support](https://vitextra.com/en/support) with the exact message, the **Version** and **Tenant** values from the **About** group of the property pane, whether the problem occurs for all users or for some, and, for a Teams tab, whether the board opens on the SharePoint page of the same site. The **Open List** button above the web part opens the `Discussions Topics` list; a screenshot of its columns helps when a column is reported missing. 💡 **Tip** Before reporting a problem, check that the latest version of the package is deployed in the app catalog; updates are described in [KB10050. How to Update a Vitextra SPFx Solution in SharePoint Online](https://vitextra.com/en/support/kb/10050).