Resolving error “Sorry, something went wrong An update conflict has occurred, and you must re-try this action” in SharePoint 2013

Recently I came across the following error message when trying to modify diagnostic logging categories in central administration.

This has occurred because of the file system cache (config cache) in SharePoint server is corrupted (having newer version than the source, which is the configuration database).

What is the file system cache (config cache)?

Config cache is where the objects from config db like timer job descriptions, features etc,, are cached locally so SharePoint does not need to query the configuration db every time. The cache is updated by a timer job.

The cache is located in “%SystemDrive%\ProgramData\Microsoft\SharePoint\Config\<GUID>” folder. You can see a set of xml files for purposes like

• Timer job descriptions to be executed by the local SharePoint server using the timer service.
• Descriptions on farm features.

How to resolve the error

To resolve error we need to clear and build the config cache manually. follow the steps given below to do that.

1. Stop the SharePoint Tmer service in every server that runs SharePoint in the farm
2. Go to the cache location and take a backup of the folder (folder with the Guuid)
3. Delete all xml files inside the folder and do not delete the cache.ini (This is a hidden file. So you may need to edit folder options to see the file)
4. Open the cache.ini file . remove existing value and enter the value 1 
5. Save cache.ini file
6. Do this process for all servers running SharePoint.
7. Start timer service in all servers running SharePoint.

If the cache clearing task is successful, new set of xml files should be generated automatically and the value of the cache.ini file should be modified (no longer 1)

That’s all. Now your cache should be consistent with the configuration db