Delete Corrupted Service Applications in SharePoint 2013

In the process of configuring application services some time we end up with corrupted service applications in SharePoint 2013. Now I would like to walk you through 3 approaches we can follow to delete the corrupted / not used service applications in SharePoint 2013. Here we will learn how to delete corrupted service applications in SharePoint 2013/2016.

If you are new to SharePoint 2016, you can download a FREE SharePoint 2016 PDF Installation guide.

Below three different ways, you can delete corrupted service applications in SharePoint 2013.

• Delete from SharePoint 2013/2016 Central Administration
• PowerShell commands
• STSADM commands

Delete Corrupted Service Application from SharePoint 2013 Central Administration:

This approach is simple and straight forward. Follow the below steps to delete the service application from Central administration.

1. Log-on to the SharePoint 2013 central administration with a FARM admin account

2. Open Central Administration and click on “Manage Service Applications” under Application Management

3. Select the required service application to be deleted (ex: Excel Services Application) and click on delete from the ribbon control.

4. Select the Checkbox “Delete data associated with the Service Application”.

Note: This will delete all the data associated with it and can’t be restored back

5. Once the Service Application is deleted it will show you a confirmation message as below. Click on OK / Cancel to close the model dialogue.

Deleted Corrupted Service Applications using PowerShell Commands:

Sometimes the first approach / Central administration will take a long time and end up with timeout errors. In this second approach, we are deleting Service application using PowerShell Commands referring to GUID of service application. You can run, debug and test PowerShell script using Windows PowerShell ISE.



1. Log-on Application Server

2. Open “SharePoint Management Shell” as administrator

3. Execute the below command to list all the existing service applications with their GUID’s
“Get-SPServiceApplication”

4. Identify the required service application to be deleted as shown in the above screenshot.

5. Execute the below command to delete/remove the service application, this step might take 10 to 15 min time.
“Remove-SPServiceApplication –Identity <GUID>”

Deleted Corrupted Service Application using STSADM Commands:

Sometimes the above the 2 approaches might take a long time. The last and dirty workaround is STSADM commands.

In this approach also we will have to follow step1 to stp4 from the 2nd approach to get the service application GUID to delete service application.

Execute the below command to delete the service application.

stsadm -o deleteconfigurationobject –id <GUID>

You may like following SharePoint 2013 tutorials:

• Configure Excel Service Application in SharePoint 2013
• SharePoint 2016 User Profile Service Application (UPSA) configuration step by step tutorial
• Configure and Consume Managed Metadata Service Application in SharePoint 2013
• How to get all service applications using PowerShell in SharePoint 2016?
• How to configure search service application in SharePoint 2013?
• Install and Configure SQL Server Reporting Services Service Application in SharePoint 2010
• The Secure Store Service application Secure Store Service is not accessible SharePoint 2016

Enjoy administration in SharePoint and hope this SharePoint 2013 tutorial explains how can we delete a corrupted service application in SharePoint 2013/2016 using PowerShell, stsadm or from central administration.