FileNotFoundException on SPWeb.GetList

Scenario

• You are writing code using the server object model and encounter an intermittant FileNotFound error when using the GetList command after using New Site and OpenWeb(FullURL), passing in a subsite url to OpenWeb. Note that if you add in a delay between OpenWeb and GetList the error does not occur.

Issue

• Apparently Opening the web at a specific location causes the GetList function to behave inconsistantly, throwing a File Not Found exception. Note that we only tried this on SharePoint 2010 in a Visual Studio 2010 console application. This may have been an environment specific issue, so if this solved your problem also, please comment if the environment was the same or different.

Resolution

• Pass the web url into the SPSite constructor and call GetWeb with no parameters. Then, when you call SPWeb.GetList(FullUrl) you will not get the FileNotFound exception.