SharePoint SoapServerException When Using Lists Service

When using the lists service to query the “User Information List” (the SharePoint list where the users and groups is located), you may encounter the exception:

System.Web.Services.Protocols.SoapException:
    Exception of type ‘Microsoft.SharePoint.SoapServer.SoapServerException’
    was thrown.
  at System.Web.Services.Protocols.SoapHttpClientProtocol.ReadResponse(
      SoapClientMessage message,
      WebResponse response,
      Stream responseStream,
      Boolean asyncCall)
  at System.Web.Services.Protocols.SoapHttpClientProtocol.Invoke(
      String methodName,
      Object[] parameters)
  at ListsDataServiceSample.SharePoint.Lists.Lists.GetList(String listName) in
      F:\Projects\Sandbox\SharePointWebServicesSample\ListsDataServiceSample\
          Web References\SharePoint.Lists\Reference.cs:line 213
  at ListsDataServiceSample.Program.Run() in
      F:\Projects\Sandbox\SharePointWebServicesSample\ListsDataServiceSample\
          Program.cs:line 28

This error will occur if you are not using the “Administrator” account, which of course, is not always ideal, especially if you are writing a client side app.

The solution to fix this is to grant the account permissions on the “User Information List”:

And then give the user “Read” permissions on the list: