Brainlitter » SharePoint server returned ‘non-specific error when trying to get data from the data source”

SharePoint server returned ‘non-specific error when trying to get data from the data source”

This from Zac Mullett today, blog ready, I just needed to cut and paste. Nice 🙂

I resolved the problem I was having where I would create a DataViewWebPart for one of our lists and get this:

The server returned a non-specific error when trying to get data from the data source. Check the format and content of your query and try again. If the problem persists, contact the server administrator.

It turns out that amongst the 100 fields the list has there was one that was tripping it up. That field just so happened to be a look-up to that list itself (self-referential). Whether or not it was because of the nature of the reference or some other spurious mal-formatted data is yet to be assessed.