.ASPX Files Now Download Instead of Launching from SharePoint

HI all,

We've confirmed the issue is related to what's described in the links above. Our IT group was able to implement a temporary solution that lasts for 1 day, so right now we need to ask in advance for a script to be run when we want to make an update. If you need to talk to your IT team about this, ask about delaying enforcement of the "Deny Add and Customize Pages" setting. 

It sounds like there are SharePoint changes coming in November of '24 that will block this workaround and require a shift to SharePoint Framework (SPFx) or an alternate solution. So now would be a great time to start engaging your SharePoint admin or IT team for planning purposes.

Thanks for the feedback, We're currently looking at a custom script setting as the possible cause of the problem: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepoint/allow-or-prevent-custom-script#to-allow-custom-script-on-other-sharepoint-sites. 

We're working to see if changing the site permissions to custom script allowed to see if that solves the problem. Implementation is still in progress but this might be worth investigating.

maybe this has to do with the problem

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepoint/allow-or-prevent-custom-script#to-allow-custom-script-on-onedrive-or-user-created-sites

We have multiple SharePoint Online sites and some don't have the custom scripts permission enabled due to the IT and security restrictions, hence the asp files will force download instead of open in the browser on those sites. The workaround for us is to get a site owner to upload the asp file to the SharePoint site that has the custom scripts enabled, then use the "move to" or "copy to" SharePoint feature to transfer the files to the other SharePoint sites. For some reason the permission retains, and the asp files would open in browser on all sites regardless the custom scripts permissions. Not sure if this method will continue work as the future SharePoint updates may block it, but at least it works for us now.

In the past, when we ran into this problem in SharePoint Online, it was always fixed by "Enabling Script" in that site (Set-PnPSite -NoScriptSite $false)

But today, we ran into this problem even on sites where that setting was turned on.

The "solution" that worked was a strange behavior:

• When the file was "dragged and dropped" into the library, it did not work.
• When the same file was "uploaded" into the library, it worked.

When I looked deeper into why this was happening:

When the file was dragged and dropped, the above "No Execute" property on the file was set to 1 and it did not work.. 

When the file was uploaded using the upload button, this property was set to 0 and it worked.

However, since this is a read-only built-in hidden property, it was not possible to update it through a script.

I believe, this started happening after the recent updates to SharePoint Online Admin portal to control the "Enable Script" behavior through UI (SharePoint Admin Center --> Active Sites --> Change View to 'Custom Script allowed Sites' --> Settings --> Custom Scripts) and the auto-switching they implemented to get it back to Blocked within 24 hours.

Unfortunately the above solution to upload instead of Drag-Drop is not reliable and if anyone can shed any help or pointers to work around this, it will be a great help.

Thanks!

@Tichelle Berg, I agree on the SPFx. We were advised that we'd need to work with our SharePoint developer to rebuild all of our courses and that we'd need developer assistance anytime they needed to be modified. It just doesn't seem scalable, even for a small number. We're still investigating other options.

Hello Kelley, 

We experience the same issue. We tried the same ways to sort out the problem, trying different solutions around AR, browser. Converting both html files into aspx (index and goodbye for Rise) helped for a couple of days (previously we converted only index), now it does not work too.   Would you please share if you've found a solution? Many thanks in advance! Irina. 

I'm running into the same issue and have attempted the same steps. Our SharePoint admin says there have been no changes on their end. Our SharePoint is hosted in the Government Cloud (GCC).

We have this same issue now, and what i can see is that when the owner of the site uploads (who also is a administrator) the aspx file it gets the proper string to launch the file in sharepoint: ?web=1 etc.., but if a member of the site uploads, its only a force download link for aspx files.
Dunno if this is helpful.

Thanks for the feedback. We're still testing exceptions on a couple of sites and waiting for confirmation. Keep your fingers crossed, please!