Sitecore: The layout for the requested document was not found

Only when I go to preview an item from the Content editor I get an error message:

The layout for the requested document was not found.

I get redirected to:

http://<site>/?item=%2f&layout=%7b00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000%7d&device=Default

However, if I take the url and type it in directly or cut and paste like

http://<site>/?sc_itemid=%7BDA4BABB2-2605-46C5-8BA6-52215A826154%7D&sc_mode=preview&sc_lang=en

Preview works.

If I load the previous backup it works, I am trying to figure out the difference between the two databases.

Any ideas of where to being to look.

Update I am using Sitecore.NET 7.5 (rev. 150212)

The issue seems to be with the Master Database, since I can use the current Core and Web database with the previous Master database and it works

The log shows

8360 07:23:12 WARN  Could not find type in ReflectionUtil.CreateObject: Sitecore.Shell.Applications.Analytics.VisitorIdentifications.RunVisitorIdentifications
8360 07:23:12 ERROR Could not instantiate "Sitecore.Shell.Applications.Analytics.VisitorIdentifications.RunVisitorIdentifications,Sitecore.Client" command object.
8360 07:23:12 WARN  Could not find type in ReflectionUtil.CreateObject: Sitecore.Shell.Applications.Analytics.Reports.Summary.Update
8360 07:23:12 ERROR Could not instantiate "Sitecore.Shell.Applications.Analytics.Reports.Summary.Update,Sitecore.Client" command object.
1932 07:23:17 INFO  Cache created: 'WebUtil.QueryStringCache' (max size: 19KB, running total: 807MB)
9780 07:23:24 INFO  HttpModule is being initialized
12800 07:23:24 INFO  HttpModule is being initialized
6248 07:23:25 INFO  HttpModule is being initialized
13332 07:23:46 ERROR Item could not be found from query string. [ID is "{DA4BABB2-2605-46C5-8BA6-52215A826154}".]

Solution

Thank you all for your help, but for this particular issue this was the fix

Annoying Misconfiguration

Excerpt

The config entry for the url being browsed had the attribute domain="extranet" in it. Reading around on the internet, when you click the Preview button, Sitecore tries to load the item you selected using the “\anonymous” account – where is the value of the domain attribute from your configuration.

So in this case, Sitecore was trying to run the preview as “extranet\anonymous” – which is exactly the security right that we have denied by clicking “Require Login”:

So the log error really means “I can’t load that item because access is denied”. For reasons best known to themselves, the developers who wrote this bit of code seem to have decided that if you can’t load an item you should fall back to the homepage item instead of warning the user what’s happened.

Changing the domain attribute’s value to the correct “sitecore” security domain (the one which editorial accounts live in) fixes the issue.