SharePoint Online External Content Connector Failing with INACCESSIBLE_CONFIGURATION and Credential

Nani royal · 4 hours ago

Hi Team,

I'm working on a SharePoint Online External Content Connector for Employee Hub search and am running into connector startup and crawl failures in DEV.

Current Setup

Existing SharePoint Online External Content Connector is already configured.
Added an additional SharePoint site to the connector crawl scope.
Connector configuration works successfully in PROD.
DEV connector fails during validation and crawl execution.

Observed Errors:
Failed to create connection. Check the connection settings.

PROD vs DEV Comparison

PROD Connection Settings

Fields available:

Application (Client) ID
Directory (Tenant) ID
JKS Certificate
JKS Certificate Password
JKS Certificate Thumbprint

DEV Connection Settings

Fields available:

Application (Client) ID
JKS Certificate
JKS Certificate Password

Missing compared to PROD:

Directory (Tenant) ID
JKS Certificate Thumbprint

Crawl Behavior

In DEV:

Save & Validate fails
Connector fails to start
All crawl jobs fail
Crawl duration shows 0 seconds
No documents are indexed

In PROD:

Connector is functioning normally

Investigation Performed

✅ Verified External Content Connector configuration

✅ Compared PROD and DEV connection settings

✅ Reviewed Crawl Settings

✅ Reviewed Crawl History

✅ Reviewed Alert logs and connector startup logs

✅ Confirmed failures occur during configuration/credential retrieval rather than during actual SharePoint crawling

Questions

Has anyone encountered a scenario where the SharePoint Online connector does not expose the Directory (Tenant) ID and JKS Certificate Thumbprint fields in one environment but does in another?
What is the recommended approach for migrating a working SharePoint Online External Content Connector from PROD to DEV?
Are connector credentials/certificate configurations stored outside the connector record and required to be recreated manually?
Could missing tenant/certificate configuration result in the credential retrieval errors shown above?

Attached snip of DEV ENV

Any guidance would be appreciated.

Thanks!