User Information pages return 404 in MOSS 2007

Question

Something strange is going on with our User Information pages. Typically, when you click on a user's name, the userdisp.aspx page should open, showing the user's profile information. This used to work properly, but as of a few weeks ago, the page returns a 404 error. We have profile imports and search configured and running -- those settings have not changed.

A couple of interesting observations:

• When the userdisp.aspx page throws a 404 error, appending "&force=true" to the query string will open the page with no error, showing user profile information correctly.
• When clicking on the name of a user whose profile has NOT been imported (we have a few "application" accounts, for example), the userdisp.aspx page opens normally; no errors.
• Deleting a user's profile from SharePoint (via Shares Services Administration) will result in userdisp.aspx opening with no errors.

I have "reset all crawled content" with no effect.

Has anyone experienced this and found a fix?

Answer 1

I believe it's not the actual userdisp.aspx throwing the 404, but it's trying to redirect to the MySite, which does not exist at the url it's trying to redirect to.

Use Fiddler to confirm.

Answer 2

Indeed MOSS 2007 SP2 causes userdisp.aspx redirect to MySite page even when a portal site connection is not configured.

I have found a good solution for this issue:

http://psconfig.com/post/42577970406/mysite-redirection-and-moss-service-pack-2