Client Portal - 'sorry something went wrong try again later'

I am trying to set up a client on the Portal, which I have successfully done before, but keeping getting the message 'Sorry, something went wrong. Please try again later.'  Rather annoying when I have now attempted this half a dozen times.  Also have set up a user that it wont find by search but when set up the user it tells me they already exist.

Why is this happening?