How to fix: Custom List Forms will not insert or show up on the Design surface of SharePoint Designer

Symptoms:

When attempting to insert a custom list form in SharePoint Designer the form never displays in design view. There is no error message, and the form never gets inserted into the page.

Cause:

There may be multiple causes. Thus far, we've identified that it can occur because of a failed SP1 install for MOSS. If you take a look at the Netmon traffic and compare it to a healthy server all you'll notice it is missing SOAP calls. Note: The other thing that is odd about this issue is that all SPD users will experience it.

Resolution:

Method 1 - Fix the failed upgrade.

You'll need to reinstall SP1 using our recommendations:

Method 2 - Clean up the user profile.

You'll need to clean up the user profile using these steps:

  1. Close SharePoint Designer 2007.
  2. Clear your Internet Explorer's temporary Internet cache.
  3. Open My Computer and go to %System Drive%\Documents and Settings\%user%\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\WebSiteCache (If you are running Vista, that path is different - look for %System Drive%\Users\%user%\AppData\Local\Microsoft\WebSiteCache).
  4. Go to a directory that looks similar to the name of the website you were connecting to.
  5. Delete the assembly with the name of your SharePoint Site.
  6. Type %temp% at a run prompt and delete all the temp files in there.
  7. Delete the contents of: C:\Documents and Settings\username\Application Data\Microsoft\Web Server Extensions\Cache.