Site template is great when migrating site, you can just save an existing site as a template and then upload it to any sites you want. Most of time, it works just as well as it should be. But occasionally, it could drive you crazy. Imaging someday, when you try to create a site from a existing site template, you receive the following error message --

"The template you have chosen is invalid or cannot be found."

Sometimes, I hate the way how SharePoint deals with errors. First of all, the above error message doesn't make any sense, even you go to the SharePoint log files under C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\web server extensions\12\LOGS hive, you can hardly figure out what exactly the problem is.


But after looking at the log, I start relizing that the issue might be related to feature activation (Seems SharePoint logs do give us a little help:)). So I looked into the manifest.xml file in the stp file (Stp file is in fact CAB file, you can simply rename and give it a CAB extension and open it using any unzip tools), and go to <SiteFeatures> or <WebFeatures> element, you can find there are a list of features under this element. Then what you need to do is compare those features with SharePoint OOB features, and remove those custom features from the list. After modifing the manifest.xml file, you can create a new cab file and rename it back with CAB extension, then you are on your way!



You're probably wondering how to get a list of SharePoint OOB features, well, there is a guy who already provided it to us. For your convenience, I paste it here again.

Feature Id	Display Name	Scope	Solution
99ee0928-7342-4739-865d-35b61ea4eaf0	BDCAdminUILinks	Farm	Microsoft.Office.Excel.Server
cdfa39c6-6413-4508-bccf-bf30368472b3	DataConnectionLibraryStapling	Farm	Microsoft.Office.Excel.Server
e4e6a041-bc5b-45cb-beab-885a27079f74	ExcelServer	Farm	Microsoft.Office.Excel.Server
a10b6aa4-135d-4598-88d1-8d4ff5691d13	ipfsAdminLinks	Farm	Microsoft.Office.Excel.Server
a573867a-37ca-49dc-86b0-7d033a7ed2c8	PremiumSiteStapling	Farm	Microsoft.Office.Excel.Server
395702f0-184c-46a2-9bb5-0a64b048738c	Analytics	Farm
97a2485f-ef4b-401f-9167-fa4fe177c6f6	BaseSiteStapling	Farm
aeef8777-70c0-429f-8a13-f12db47a6d47	BulkWorkflow	Farm
0f121a23-c6bc-400f-87e4-e6bbddf6916d	ContentLightup	Farm
fead7313-4b9e-4632-80a2-ff00a2d83297	ContentTypeSettings	Farm
1ec2c859-e9cb-4d79-9b2b-ea8df09ede22	DMContentTypeSettings	Farm
81ebc0d6-8fb2-4e3f-b2f8-062640037398	EnhancedHtmlEditing	Farm
0125140f-7123-4657-b70a-db9aa1f209e5	FeaturePushdown	Farm
4d0d9bec-5103-4663-b88d-27cfab1029ff	FeaturePushdownTask	Farm
319d8f70-eb3a-4b44-9c79-2087a87799d6	GlobalWebParts	Farm
fc33ba3b-7919-4d7e-b791-c6aeccf8f851	ListTargeting	Farm
8a663fe0-9d9c-45c7-8297-66365ad50427	MasterSiteDirectoryControl	Farm
69cc9662-d373-47fc-9449-f18d11ff732c	MySite	Farm
0faf7d1b-95b1-4053-b4e2-19fd5c9bbc88	MySiteCleanup	Farm
c922c106-7d0a-4377-a668-7f13d52cb80f	OSearchCentralAdminLinks	Farm
edf48246-e4ee-4638-9eed-ef3d0aee7597	OSearchPortalAdminLinks	Farm
fcd4c704-ed7a-42fb-ab30-2bb0ab6494c8	OSearchSRPAdminLinks	Farm
af847aa9-beb6-41d4-8306-78e41af9ce25	ProfileSynch	Farm
001f4bd7-746d-403b-aa09-a6cc43de7942	PublishingStapling	Farm
6d127338-5e7d-4391-8f62-a11e43b1d404	RecordsManagement	Farm
f324259d-393d-4305-aa48-36e8d9a7a0d6	SharedServices	Farm
fead7313-4b9e-4632-80a2-98a2a2d83297	SiteSettings	Farm
937f97e9-d7b4-473d-af17-b03951b2c66b	SkuUpgradeLinks	Farm
65d96c6b-649a-4169-bf1d-b96505c60375	SlideLibraryActivation	Farm
612d671e-f53d-4701-96da-c3a4ee00fdc5	SpellChecking	Farm
713a65a1-2bc7-4e62-9446-1d0b56a8bf7f	SPSDisco	Farm
11df38ab-5bbb-4304-9da8-221c5c4100b0	SpsSsoLinks	Farm
c43a587e-195b-4d29-aba8-ebb22b48eb1a	SRPProfileAdmin	Farm
ee21b29b-b0d0-42c6-baff-c97fd91786e6	StapledWorkflows	Farm
82e2ea42-39e2-4b27-8631-ed54c1cfc491	TransMgmtFunc	Farm
f0deabbb-b0f6-46ba-8e16-ff3b44461aeb	UserMigrator	Farm
e15ed6d2-4af1-4361-89d3-2acf8cd485de	ExcelServerWebApplication	WebApplication	Microsoft.Office.Excel.Server
0ea1c3b6-6ac0-44aa-9f3f-05e8dbe6d70b	PremiumWebApplication	WebApplication	Microsoft.Office.Excel.Server
4f56f9fa-51a0-420c-b707-63ecbb494db1	BaseWebApplication	WebApplication
d992aeca-3802-483a-ab40-6c9376300b61	BulkWorkflowTimerJob	WebApplication
bc29e863-ae07-4674-bd83-2c6d0aa5623f	OSearchBasicFeature	WebApplication
4750c984-7721-4feb-be61-c660c6190d43	OSearchEnhancedFeature	WebApplication
14173c38-5e2d-4887-8134-60f9df889bad	PageConverters	WebApplication
1dbf6063-d809-45ea-9203-d3ba4a64f86d	SearchAndProcess	WebApplication
2ac1da39-c101-475c-8601-122bc36e3d67	SPSearchFeature	WebApplication
43f41342-1a37-4372-8ca0-b44d881e4434	BizAppsCTypes	Site	Microsoft.Office.Excel.Server
5a979115-6b71-45a5-9881-cdc872051a69	BizAppsFields	Site	Microsoft.Office.Excel.Server
4248e21f-a816-4c88-8cab-79d82201da7b	BizAppsSiteTemplates	Site	Microsoft.Office.Excel.Server
3cb475e7-4e87-45eb-a1f3-db96ad7cf313	ExcelServerSite	Site	Microsoft.Office.Excel.Server
c88c4ff1-dbf5-4649-ad9f-c6c426ebcbf5	IPFSSiteFeatures	Site	Microsoft.Office.Excel.Server
8581a8a7-cf16-4770-ac54-260265ddb0b2	PremiumSite	Site	Microsoft.Office.Excel.Server
b21b090c-c796-4b0f-ac0f-7ef1659c20ae	BaseSite	Site
00bfea71-1c5e-4a24-b310-ba51c3eb7a57	BasicWebParts	Site
695b6570-a48b-4a8e-8ea5-26ea7fc1d162	CTypes	Site
c85e5759-f323-4efb-b548-443d2216efb5	ExpirationWorkflow	Site
ca7bd552-10b1-4563-85b9-5ed1d39c962a	Fields	Site
fde5d850-671e-4143-950a-87b473922dc7	IssueTrackingWorkflow	Site
14aafd3a-fcb9-4bb7-9ad7-d8e36b663bbd	LocalSiteDirectoryControl	Site
e978b1a6-8de7-49d0-8600-09a250354e14	LocalSiteDirectorySettingsLink	Site
863da2ac-3873-4930-8498-752886210911	MySiteBlog	Site
49571cd1-b6a1-43a3-bf75-955acc79c8d8	MySiteHost	Site
6928b0e5-5707-46a1-ae16-d6e52522d52b	MySiteLayouts	Site
89e0306d-453b-4ec5-8d68-42067cdbf98e	Navigation	Site
c9c9515d-e4e2-4001-9050-74f980f93160	OffWFCommon	Site
7ac8cc56-d28e-41f5-ad04-d95109eb987a	OSSSearchSearchCenterUrlSiteFeature	Site
5f3b0127-2f1d-4cfd-8dd2-85ad1fb00bfc	PortalLayouts	Site
24d7018d-bf48-4813-a28d-dbf3dba173b1	PublishingB2TRHop2SiteFilesUpgrade	Site
fd3dd145-e35e-4871-9a6d-bf17f28a1c19	PublishingB2TRSiteFilesUpgrade	Site
d3f51be2-38a8-4e44-ba84-940d35be1566	PublishingLayouts	Site
a392da98-270b-4e85-9769-04c0fde267aa	PublishingPrerequisites	Site
aebc918d-b20f-4a11-a1db-9ed84d79c87e	PublishingResources	Site
f6924d36-2fa8-4f0b-b16d-06b7250180fa	PublishingSite	Site
8156ee99-ddfb-47bb-8835-7ae42d40d9b9	ReportCenterCreation	Site
7094bd89-2cfe-490a-8c7e-fbace37b4a34	Reporting	Site
02464c6a-9d07-4f30-ba04-e9035cf54392	ReviewWorkflows	Site
eaf6a128-0482-4f71-9a2f-b1c650680e77	SearchWebParts	Site
6c09612b-46af-4b2f-8dfc-59185c962a29	SignaturesWorkflow	Site
c6561405-ea03-40a9-a57f-f25472942a22	TranslationWorkflow	Site
7c637b23-06c4-472d-9a9a-7c175762c5c4	ViewFormPagesLockDown	Site
2ed1c45e-a73b-4779-ae81-1524e4de467a	WebPartAdderGroups	Site
d250636f-0a26-4019-8425-a5232d592c09	AddDashboard	Web	Microsoft.Office.Excel.Server
065c78be-5231-477e-a972-14177cc5b3c7	BizAppsListTemplates	Web	Microsoft.Office.Excel.Server
00bfea71-dbd7-4f72-b8cb-da7ac0440130	DataConnectionLibrary	Web	Microsoft.Office.Excel.Server
750b8e49-5213-4816-9fa2-082900c0201a	IPFSAdminWeb	Web	Microsoft.Office.Excel.Server
a0e5a010-1329-49d4-9e09-f280cdbed37d	IPFSWebFeatures	Web	Microsoft.Office.Excel.Server
0806d127-06e6-447a-980e-2e90b03101b8	PremiumWeb	Web	Microsoft.Office.Excel.Server
2510d73f-7109-4ccc-8a1c-314894deeb3a	ReportListTemplate	Web	Microsoft.Office.Excel.Server
fead7313-ae6d-45dd-8260-13b563cb4c71	AdminLinks	Web
56dd7fe7-a155-4283-b5e6-6147560601ee	AnalyticsLinks	Web
00bfea71-d1ce-42de-9c63-a44004ce0104	AnnouncementsList	Web
99fe402e-89a0-45aa-9163-85342e865dc8	BaseWeb	Web
3f59333f-4ce1-406d-8a97-9ecb0ff0337f	BDR	Web
00bfea71-7e6d-4186-9ba8-c047ac750105	ContactsList	Web
00bfea71-de22-43b2-a848-c05709900100	CustomList	Web
00bfea71-f381-423d-b9d1-da7a54c50110	DataSourceLibrary	Web
ca2543e6-29a1-40c1-bba9-bd8510a4c17b	DeploymentLinks	Web
00bfea71-6a49-43fa-b535-d15c05500108	DiscussionsList	Web
00bfea71-e717-4e80-aa17-d0c71b360101	DocumentLibrary	Web
00bfea71-ec85-4903-972d-ebe475780106	EventsList	Web
00bfea71-513d-4ca0-96c2-6a47775c0119	GanttTasksList	Web
5b1e6e3b-83c2-483b-8500-16a025777ed1	GradualUpgrade	Web
00bfea71-3a1d-41d3-a0ee-651d11570120	GridList	Web
9e56487c-795a-4077-9425-54a1ecb84282	Hold	Web
00bfea71-5932-4f9c-ad71-1557e5751100	IssuesList	Web
6e53dd27-98f2-4ae5-85a0-e9a8ef4aa6df	LegacyDocumentLibrary	Web
00bfea71-2062-426c-90bf-714c59600103	LinksList	Web
8f15b342-80b1-4508-8641-0751e2b55ca6	LocalSiteDirectoryMetaData	Web
7fe16263-b3fd-454f-a3e8-ed05fdf2adb6	MigrationLinks	Web
f41cc668-37e5-4743-b4a8-74d1db3fd8a4	MobilityRedirect	Web
6adff05c-d581-4c05-a6b9-920f15ec6fd9	MySiteNavigation	Web
034947cc-c424-47cd-a8d1-6014f0e36925	MySiteQuickLaunch	Web
541f5f57-c847-4e16-b59a-b31e90e6f9ea	NavigationProperties	Web
00bfea71-f600-43f6-a895-40c0de7b0117	NoCodeWorkflowLibrary	Web
068f8656-bea6-4d60-a5fa-7f077f8f5c20	OsrvLinks	Web
0b4aad40-406f-425c-bdd9-5894c42cffcb	OsrvTasks	Web
10bdac29-a21a-47d9-9dff-90c7cae1301e	OssNavigation	Web
7acfcb9d-8e8f-4979-af7e-8aed7e95245e	OSSSearchSearchCenterUrlFeature	Web
00bfea71-52d4-45b3-b544-b1c71b620109	PictureLibrary	Web
22a9ef51-737b-4ff2-9346-694633fe4416	Publishing	Web
94c94ca6-b32f-4da9-a9e3-1f3d343d7ecb	PublishingWeb	Web
306936fd-9806-4478-80d1-7e397bfa6474	RedirectPageContentTypeBinding	Web
e8734bb6-be8e-48a1-b036-5a40ff0b8a81	RelatedLinksScopeSettingsLink	Web
c5d947d6-b0a2-4e07-9929-8e54f5a9fff9	ReportCenterSampleData	Web
a311bf68-c990-4da3-89b3-88989a3d7721	SitesList	Web
0be49fe9-9bc9-409d-abf9-702753bd878d	SlideLibrary	Web
00bfea71-eb8a-40b1-80c7-506be7590102	SurveysList	Web
00bfea71-a83e-497e-9ba0-7a5c597d0107	TasksList	Web
00bfea71-4ea5-48d4-a4ad-7ea5c011abe5	TeamCollab	Web
29d85c25-170c-4df9-a641-12db0b9d4130	TransMgmtLib	Web
2fa4db13-4109-4a1d-b47c-c7991d4cc934	UpgradeOnlyFile	Web
00bfea71-c796-4402-9f2f-0eb9a6e71b18	WebPageLibrary	Web
8c6a6980-c3d9-440e-944c-77f93bc65a7e	WikiWelcome	Web
00bfea71-4ea5-48d4-a4ad-305cf7030140	WorkflowHistoryList	Web
00bfea71-2d77-4a75-9fca-76516689e21a	workflowProcessList	Web
00bfea71-1e1d-4562-b56a-f05371bb0115	XmlFormLibrary	Web

Someone's maybe wondering, "Why you not just deactive the feature from the site and then save it as a template", to be honest, that site template is took from a running production environment, I don't have enough permission to do that and our customers don't willing to take the risk to deactive those features from a production environment. It's not that useful for most of cases, but when one day you were in the same situation as I was, then you would give me a hug:).