Resolving 'This Scope Is Already Taken by Another Application' Error in ServiceNow

[Marc Mouries]

The Problem:

When creating a new application in ServiceNow, you might encounter the following error:

"Your app encountered an unexpected error while being created. Details: Failed to create templated object, details: This scope is already taken by another application."

The Reason

This error indicates that the application scope you've chosen is already in use within your instance. In ServiceNow, each application must have a unique scope to prevent conflicts and ensure proper isolation of components.

Solutions

1. Use ServiceNow Studio or Creator Studio:

• These tools allow you to specify and modify the application scope during creation.
• Ensure the scope identifier you choose is unique within your instance. See next section.

2. Check Existing Application Scopes:

• Navigate to the list of scoped applications by typing sys_scope.list in the application navigator and pressing Enter.
• Review the list to see if the desired scope already exists.

3. Choose a Unique Scope Identifier:

• If a conflict exists, modify the application name or manually set a distinct scope identifier to ensure uniqueness.

[TashfiqueH]

Even if i change name of the app it is the same error. I have checked it also does not exist. I have tried with different names. still same error

[Marc Mouries]

can you post your comment on your question and not on this article and add screenshots showing what error you're getting? 

[Mikael Karlsson]

AES doesn't allow us to choose the scope internal name, it seems to very primitively just convert the friendly name to a shorter lowercase scope name without any attempt of uniquification or randomization in case of collisions. I ran into this as well today and had to create using classic studio.

[WORKFLOW-COWBOY]

Hi @Mikael Karlsson - I use all of the studios, quite frequently. 😀

The workaround I teach AES users is to start their app name with something unique such as "YearYearMonthMonthDayDayInitialInitial Name of App"(Ex. 241213WC MyApp). 

Then, still in AES, open the app, click on the settings gear icon, and change the Label of the app back to "MyApp". This allows them to control over the scope name to something unique that should not conflict with something already on the instance or already in use by the company App Repo the instance is connected to.

The PDIs are not connected to an App Repo like a normal instance so they should not have any name conflicts with other instances, just themselves. 

[Paige Duffey]

Nice post @Marc Mouries - One thing to note is that it is not just a duplicate scope on your instance, but it's a duplicate scope in your name space. So if the app exists on another instance in the same name space (say a company's Dev2 instance) you will get the same error. This means you may not see the scope on the sys_app table!

[JasonRkr]

WORKFLOW-COWBOY, thank you for the post.  Prefixing worked for me.

Paige, any thoughts on why this would happen in a NowLearning course?  I'm taking "Introduction to App Engine Studio for Developers" and ran into this error while performing the steps in Activity 1 using the instance provisioned specifically for the course.

Thank you,

Jason

[Paige Duffey]

Hi @JasonRkr  - No. I am not privy to how the NowLearning courses are provisioned. It could be a similar issue with the company code. I would recommend reaching out to NowLearning support through the NL portal. Sorry!

[FerranPC]

Hi, I am getting the error "This scope is already taken by another application" after deleting a scope and trying to create it again with the same name.
Seeing the comment from @Paige Duffey I checked all our instances but it's not there in any of them.
Could it be that, once it is created, the name is somehow reserved and cannot be used again, even after deleting it?
Or, could it be that it's not fully deleted but somehow disabled and not visible to me?

[rrozin]

I have the same issue. I just started a new instance yesterday and have not been able to create an application. It doesn't matter what name I choose.
No matter what I do. I even reset my instance and still cannot create an application. 

[Mikael Karlsson]

I believe it's just App Engine which is really stupid when naming things, doesnt check for existing name but still slaps a number after the generated short scopename which collides. Create the app in classic studio and get to choose the scope name yourself.