SharePoint 3.0: Error: Access Denied, Search Crawl Log

Description:

You receive an error when attempting to run a crawl on a content source.

Shared Services Administration > Search Settings > Content Sources > Crawl Log:

Error:

"Access is denied. Check that the Default Content Access Account has access to this content, or add a crawl rule to crawl this content. (The item was deleted because it was either not found or the crawler was denied access to it.)"


Solution:

Aside from Alternate Access Mappings (AAM) issues, Content Access account permissions issues, and invalid credentials, this error may also appear if the "Loopback Check" is enabled.

Instructions for disabling the Loopback Check are included in Microsoft Support KB 89861.

KB 89681: You receive error 401.1 when you browse a Web site that uses Integrated Authentication and is hosted on IIS 5.1 or IIS 6
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/896861