What does Windows error code 560 (ERROR_NO_GUID_TRANSLATION) mean?

ERROR_NO_GUID_TRANSLATION

File-system protection could not translate a SID to its stored GUID form

ERROR_NO_GUID_TRANSLATION is specific to applying protection to a file-system file or directory. One of the SIDs in the security descriptor could not be translated into a GUID that the file system can store. The protection operation therefore fails and can also cause the surrounding file-creation operation to fail.

What to inspect

• Preserve the exact file or directory operation and the security descriptor supplied before any ACL normalization or retry.
• Identify the SID whose translation fails and verify that it is valid in the security context and namespace expected by the target file system.
• Record the target filesystem, inherited versus explicit ACEs, owner/group fields, and the API that applies the descriptor.

Do not broaden it into a generic GUID lookup problem

This result is not evidence that an arbitrary directory object, tenant GUID, profile identifier, or policy GUID is missing. Troubleshooting replication or identity caches without first establishing the failing file-system security descriptor follows the wrong abstraction boundary.

Recovery boundary

Correct or replace the security identity that cannot be represented by the target file system, then repeat the original protection/file-creation operation with the same object and intended ACL. If a wrapper returns another error afterward, keep that later result separate.

References

• Microsoft: System Error Codes 500–999
• Microsoft: Retrieving the last-error code