AADServicePrincipalNotFound
Microsoft Entra or Microsoft Graph returns `AADServicePrincipalNotFound` when the requested service principal object cannot be resolved in the active tenant.
Last reviewed: February 8, 2026|Editorial standard: source-backed technical guidance
What Does AAD Service Principal Not Found Mean?
Identity-driven provisioning and RBAC assignment steps fail because automation is targeting a principal object that does not exist in that tenant.
Common Causes
- -Object ID or app ID belongs to a different tenant than the one used by the current request.
- -Enterprise application (service principal) was deleted, disabled, or never provisioned in this tenant.
- -Multi-tenant onboarding skipped admin consent, so service principal creation never completed.
- -Automation cached an outdated principal ID after app re-registration or tenant migration.
How to Fix AAD Service Principal Not Found
- 1Query service principals in the target tenant and confirm the exact object/app ID pair exists.
- 2Provision missing enterprise app objects in that tenant before role assignment or token workflows.
- 3Update runtime configuration to use tenant-correct principal identifiers from authoritative identity inventory.
- 4Retry the failed operation only after consent/provisioning completes and directory replication settles.
Step-by-Step Diagnosis for AAD Service Principal Not Found
- 1Capture failing request details including tenant ID, principal identifier, and API path.
- 2Inspect Entra enterprise apps and Graph query results to confirm principal existence and status.
- 3Trace onboarding/consent flow history for the tenant to detect incomplete service principal provisioning.
- 4Compare deployed configuration against identity registry to find stale or cross-tenant IDs.
Tenant-Scoped Principal Identity Validation
- -Verify principal object ID in the same tenant used by the failing request (example: object ID copied from home tenant but operation runs in customer tenant).
- -Resolve by
appIdand confirm expectedservicePrincipalobject is present and enabled (example: app registration exists but enterprise app instance is missing).
Provisioning and Consent Flow Checks
- -Audit consent/onboarding events for target tenant (example: multi-tenant app consent canceled before service principal creation).
- -Inspect automation for re-registration drift (example: app recreated with new appId while RBAC scripts still reference old service principal object ID).
How to Verify the Fix
- -Re-run directory lookup and confirm service principal is returned in the intended tenant.
- -Retry RBAC or deployment operation and verify not-found identity errors are gone.
- -Validate dependent token acquisition and resource operations succeed with corrected principal IDs.
How to Prevent Recurrence
- -Maintain per-tenant identity inventory for service principals and rotate references through controlled release pipelines.
- -Gate onboarding completion on successful service principal provisioning and consent verification.
- -Add startup checks that validate critical principal IDs before executing privileged automation.
Pro Tip
- -store both
appIdand tenant-localservicePrincipal objectIdin config and alert when either changes unexpectedly.
Decision Support
Compare Guide
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Compare Guide
404 Not Found vs 410 Gone: Missing vs Permanent Removal
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Playbook
Resource State Playbook (404 / 410 / ResourceNotFound)
Use this playbook to separate temporary missing-resource lookups from permanent removals, then fix scope, lifecycle, and identifier drift safely.
Official References
Provider Context
This guidance is specific to Azure services. Always validate implementation details against official provider documentation before deploying to production.