Out of the box approval workflow suddenly failed on start (retrying)

SharePoint 2010. I've been using out of the box approval workflow for several month now. I did some minor changes to it, like to who and when emails should be send, but that's all.
Then out of a sudden it stopped working. New request status is "Failed on start (retrying)". Sometimes (!) status is "In Progress", but no tasks are created. In both cases there is nothing on workflow history and error report is also empty
(it even cause an error "Report contains no data").
I'm sure that I didn't change anything in a workflow. The only think that I changed was an InfoPath form, but I only added there field "Created By", so I would see in calendar later who created this request. I couldn't see how this might affect workflow
process.
I'm confused as I don't even know where to start searching for the solution. Why this might happen? Any ideas are very welcome!

In my list I have a multiple choice field which is not required. When it was
blank my workflow was failing on start! This field was not involved in a workflow directly, I included it only in the email to approver. When I deleted it from an email everything was fine.

Similar Messages

After the in place upgrade from SharePoint server 2007 to 2010, the out of the box approval workflow does not prompt for additional information after check in of a major version.

I think it has to do with the interaction between Word, InfoPath, IIS, and /or SharePoint, but I cannot put my finger on it. Maybe client integration or authentication settings? I have looked at it in wireshark
and have not seen anything glaring.
Steps to reproduce the (working) behavior:
Set up a document library in SharePoint 2010.
Under versioning settings, make the following changes:
Set Require Content Approval for submitted Items to Yes
Select Create Major and Minor (draft) versions
Set require checkout to Yes
Create an out of the box “approval” workflow with the following settings:
Start this workflow to approve publishing a major version of an item.
I then create a new document. Save it. check it in. it is now version 0.1.
I then open it again. check it out. Make a change. Close and save it.
Check it in.
Publish major version:
At this point a screen is presented to me to enter workflow parameters. This screen comes up in Enterprise 2013 and MOSS 2007, but not the migrated version of 2010:
This is what I need help with. It should come up in 2010. To fix it in 2013, I had to change the IIS bindings to only have 1 entry for a port. I did this for 2010 and it did not work.
Any help or ideas is very appreciated. Thanks very much in advance.

Hi Chris,
According to your description, my understanding is that the approval workflow cannot work when the workflow was set to start to approve publishing a major version of an item after upgrading to SharePoint 2010.
I recommend to check the approval workflow in Workflow settings of the corresponding library to see if the Start this workflow to approve publishing a major version of an item is checked.
For test, I recommend to create a new OOB approval workflow and set it to start to approve publishing a major version of an item in the same library to see if the workflow can work.
Thanks
Victoria
Forum Support
Please remember to mark the replies as answers if they help and unmark them if they provide no help. If you have feedback for TechNet Subscriber Support, contact
[email protected]
Victoria Xia
TechNet Community Support

OIM 11gR2 - Out-of-the-box Approval Workflows

Does anyone know of any good resources that describes the out-of-the-box approval/provisioning workflows of 11g R2? I have searched Google back and forth but found nothing. Some of the workflows are obvious by their name (such as default/BeneficiaryManagerApproval!1.0), but others are not so clear regarding their flows.
On that same note, can one of the out-of-the-box approval workflows be configured to route to an approval group instead of single users?
Thanks for your help!

Instead of searching for docs in google i guess reverse-engineering on your own will be the best way to understand the approval workflows. Navigate to OIM_HOME/server/workflows/composites. It will contain all the approval workflow zip files. Unzip the required one which you want to understand and there will be a .jws file in it. Now open that in jdeveloper and open AprrovalProcess.bpel and composite.xml. It will show how the approval routes and what are the business rules written, everything. It is the best way to understand the approval workflows.
In the same way u can make changes to the out-of-the-box approval workflows also. See this OBE tutorial to understand how you can assign the approval to a group
http://www.oracle.com/webfolder/technetwork/tutorials/obe/fmw/oim/oim_11g/Request_Workflow_for_Self_Registration/request_workflow_for_self_registration.htm
Also please try the approval workflow given in the developer's guide which covers most of the basics.
http://docs.oracle.com/cd/E27559_01/dev.1112/e27150/request.htm#CIHFBEFB

Not able to start out of the box approval workflow programmatically

We have a requirement to start an out of the box workflow from a .NET web service.
We are using the StartWorfklow method:
wfManager.StartWorkflow(item, association, association.AssociationData
we are getting the below error message at the above line of code: Attempted to perform an unauthorized operation.. Data: System.Collections.ListDictionaryInternal
Then, we tried:
SPSecurity.RunWithElevatedPrivileges(delegate()
        wfManager.StartWorkflow(item, association, association.AssociationData,
SPWorkflowRunOptions.Synchronous);
Now, the workflow got canceled automatically with "Failed on Start" status. In the "Workflow History", it is showing 2 records with "was canceled by System Account." & "failed to start" in the description
column.
Please advise.

Hi Zhengyu,
1. I've already done that:
a) when "SPSecurity.RunWithElevatedPrivileges(delegate()"
is used, there are no errors showing up and code gets executed. However, the workflow failed to start.
b) When I don't use elevated privileges, the code is showing an error (Attempted to perform an unauthorized operation.. Data: System.Collections.ListDictionaryInternal) when
it tries to start the workflow (StartWorkflow method).
2. The workflow starts with no issues through UI. I tried it using "System Account" and another account.
3. I tried also "Collect Feedback" workflow template. Same results...
You can find the code below:
public
stringStartItemWorkflow(stringsitePath,
stringlibraryName,
stringfileName)
stringreturnVal =
String.Empty;
stringwfName =
"VPApprovalWF";
SPUserTokentoken = GetSecurityToken(sitePath);
try
using(Microsoft.SharePoint.SPSiteportalSite
= newMicrosoft.SharePoint.SPSite(sitePath,
token))
using(SPWebportalWeb
= portalSite.OpenWeb())
                    portalWeb.AllowUnsafeUpdates =
true;
SPListlist = portalWeb.Lists[libraryName];
SPQueryfileQuery =
newSPQuery();
                    fileQuery.Query =
String.Format("<Where><Contains><FieldRef
Name='FileLeafRef' /><Value Type=\"User\">{0}</Value></Contains></Where>", fileName);
                    fileQuery.ViewAttributes =
"Scope='RecursiveAll'";
SPListItemCollectionlistItemCol = list.GetItems(fileQuery);
SPWorkflowManagerwfManager = portalSite.WorkflowManager;
SPWorkflowAssociationCollectionassociationCollection
= list.WorkflowAssociations;
if(listItemCol.Count > 0)
foreach(SPListItemitem
inlistItemCol)
if(associationCollection.Count > 0)
foreach(SPWorkflowAssociationassociation
inassociationCollection)
if(association.Name == wfName)
                                        item.Update();
                                        association.AutoStartChange
=
true;
                                        association.AutoStartCreate
=
false;
                                        association.AssociationData
=
String.Empty;
                                        StartWF(wfManager,
item, association);
                                        returnVal +=
"Workflow Started";
break;
else
                                returnVal +=
"No workflows are attached to the library.";
else
                        returnVal +=
"A file with the name provided doesn't exist";
                    portalWeb.AllowUnsafeUpdates =
false;
catch(Exceptionex)
            returnVal +=
"Workflow not started, reason: "+
String.Format("Source:
{0}. Stack Trace: {1}. Inner Exception:{2}. Message: {3}. Data: {4}", ex.Source, ex.StackTrace, ex.InnerException, ex.Message, ex.Data);
returnreturnVal;
SPUserTokenGetSecurityToken(stringsitePath)
SPUserTokentoken =
null;
SPSecurity.RunWithElevatedPrivileges(delegate()
            Microsoft.SharePoint.
SPSiteportalSite =
newMicrosoft.SharePoint.SPSite(sitePath);
            token = portalSite.RootWeb.EnsureUser(
"DOMAIN\\ADMIN-USER").UserToken;
            portalSite.Dispose();
returntoken;
privatestaticvoidStartWF(SPWorkflowManagerwfManager,
SPListItemitem,
SPWorkflowAssociationassociation)
SPSecurity.RunWithElevatedPrivileges(delegate()
            wfManager.StartWorkflow(item, association, association.AssociationData,
SPWorkflowRunOptions.Synchronous);
Thank you all for your help.
Regards,

I can't see the workflow diagram in the out-of-the-box proposal workflow in Project Server 2010

Hello,
I created new project based on the template out-of-the-box proposal, but after that i can't see the following diagram ..

Hi,
To achieve this you can use Workflow Visualization webpart from Project Server 2010 Solution Starter Kit from
here.
Thanks !!!
Sachin Vashishth MCTS

Workflow error Failed on Start (retrying)

When I run my custom workflow, it gives error Failed on Start (retrying) each time. It was working properly, but now it gives the mentioned error. Even I have created two more very simple custom workflow on testing list, they even did not work and gave the same error. How to rectify this error.

Hi,
I am also facing this same issue and I have been scratching my head since last 2 days.
I have created a blog site. There is a SPD workflow attached to the Post list and Comments list with a few number of activities like Build Dynamic String, Send Email etc. Both the lists (Post & Comments) have content approval set. Point is whenever I
am creating a new post or new comments, the workflow column is showing "Failed on Start (retrying)". Then after a few moments it's getting completed, activities are working and sometimes getting stopped.
Checking the log files under 12 hive I got :
System.ArgumentException: Value does not fall within the expected range.
RunWorkflow: System.ArgumentException: Value does not fall within the expected range. at Microsoft.SharePoint.Workflow.SPWorkflowActivationProperties..ctor(SPWorkflow workflow, Int32 runAsUserId, String associationData, String initiationData)
at Microsoft.SharePoint.Workflow.SPWinOEWSSService.MakeActivation(SPWorkflow workflow, SPWorkflowEvent e) at Microsoft.SharePoint.Workflow.SPWinOeEngine.RunWorkflow(Guid trackingId, SPWorkflowHostService host, SPWorkflow workflow,
Collection`1 events, TimeSpan timeOut) at Microsoft.SharePoint.Workflow.SPWorkflowManager.RunWorkflowElev(SPWorkflow originalWorkflow, SPWorkflow workflow, Collection`1 events, SPRunWorkflowOptions runOptions)
I don't know what is the issue. But still it's not getting resolved.
I have already tried the below tricks following various forums and blogs.
Checked removing the Send Email & Build Dynamic String activity.
Checked the app pool account (IIS) and service account (Central Admin) and changed them both to NETWORKSERVICE account.
Checked and compared all the entries in web.config and GAC
Tried repairing the perfCounters
Tried this blog - http://sharepoint.indigoreality.com/2013/01/14/sharepoint-designer-2010-error-could-not-publish-the-workflow-because-the-workflow-configuration-file-contains-errors/
Tried deactivating the features with the word "workflow"
Tried another workflow with another custom list. Same thing is happening.
Also tried an OOB approval workflow. Task is getting created and mail is coming. But workflow column is showing "Failed on Start (retrying)".
Please help me out. I am using MOSS 2007 and SPD 2007.
Thanks a lot in advance.
- Brushaketu

Where is the SP 2010 out of the box workflow status value stored?

I created an out of the box Approval - SharePoint 2010 workflow (TEST1) on a custom list. When I created this out of the box workflow, I specified a name for the task (TEST1 Tasks) and history (TEST1 History) list.
The workflow is creating tasks, sending emails, and the task emails lead me to a screen where I can approve or reject the requests.
However, TEST1 - the list that contains the items created - doesn't have a status column. The TEST1 Tasks has a status column. But I would prefer the people working with the workflow just look at TEST1 and not the Tasks or History lists.
What is the preferred way to create one of these list workflows so that the admins only have to look at the specific tasks that have been submitted and they can see which have been approved or not?
Thank you

Thank you for your reply. Initially, I didn't have content approval turned on, had workflow approval turned on, but didn't have a status column. I also had an error in the history list that the status could not be created.
When I turned on the content approval, then I got a status column, but now my list has a warning across the top telling the user that their request won't be public until approved.
I don't really WANT a document approval workflow. But I don't see how to set up what I do want.
What I need is a simple custom list - a few lookup columns, the rest static data columns, that describe an action that is being requested. That request (ala the list item) is what needs to be approved or rejected. There is no publishing needed in this workflow.
The approval workflow was the closest I could see for setting up such a simple request workflow.

Out of the box workflow failed on start when started programatically

I have an approval workflow (out of the box) associated with a list and need to start it for some items programmatically when some conditions are met.
My application runs under an account which is a farm admin. I do have another user dedicated to start workflows. I'm using the code below but it always results in a 'failed on start' with these errors
2/27/2015 4:54 PM
Workflow Cancelled
System
Account
Workflow 'WorkflowName' was canceled by System Account.
2/27/2015 4:54 PM
Error
System
Account
'WorkflowName' failed to start.
Code is :
SPUserToken userToken = null;
using (SPSite site = new SPSite("SiteName"))
using (SPWeb web = site.OpenWeb())
site.AllowUnsafeUpdates = true;
web.AllowUnsafeUpdates = true;
userToken = web.AllUsers["WorkflowAccount"].UserToken;
site.AllowUnsafeUpdates = false;
web.AllowUnsafeUpdates = false;
using (SPSite site = new SPSite("SiteName", userToken))
using (SPWeb web = site.OpenWeb())
site.AllowUnsafeUpdates = true;
web.AllowUnsafeUpdates = true;
SPWorkflowManager workflowManager = web.Site.WorkflowManager;
SPList list = web.Lists["LibName"];
SPListItem item = list.Items[1];
SPWorkflowAssociationCollection associationCollection = list.WorkflowAssociations;
foreach (SPWorkflowAssociation association in associationCollection)
if (association.Name == "WorkflowName")
association.AutoStartChange = true;
association.AutoStartCreate = false;
association.AssociationData = string.Empty;
site.WorkflowManager.StartWorkflow(item, association, association.AssociationData);
break;
site.AllowUnsafeUpdates = false;
web.AllowUnsafeUpdates = false;
Is there any requirement on who can create the workflow? I can control who creates if I absolutely have to
Any help/clues/directions appreciated.

Hi LNFei,
To troubleshooting the issue, I recommend to follow the steps as below:
1.Start the workflow manually to check whether it works.
2.Use another account not System Account to check whether it works.
3.Publish the workflow as a different user (rather than System Account).
4.Deactivate and Reactive the “Workflow” Feature.
5.Check other workflows on other lists/libraries could work well.
6.Create a simple workflow having only one activity which will log history only, check if it works well.
Best Regards,
Wendy
TechNet Community Support
Please remember to mark the replies as answers if they help, and unmark the answers if they provide no help. If you have feedback for TechNet Support, contact
[email protected]

In search of assistance learning how to modify the mail message from an out of the box SP2010 approval workflow.

So, I have found the article
http://punaro.com/2012/01/derek/modifying-a-sharepoint-2010-workflow-email/comment-page-1/ which appears to walk through the process of modifying an out of the box workflow's mail message.
However, there is a basic problem that I run into before I get started.
I am logged into the system as a regular user (ie not a farm admin, etc.).
I do, however, have full control on the site on which I am working.
I create a custom list.
I create a simple one step approval - sharepoint 2010 out of the box workflow.
I start SharePoint designer and give it the URL of the list. It opens up and I see the various objects on the left side of the screen.
I click right on the Workflows object - which is where the article says I will find the ability to copy and modify the workflow.
All I see is "open", "open in a new tab" and "Pin".
I selecdt open in a new tab - and I get a blank screen labeled workflows that says "There are no items to show in this view".
So, I click on Lists and Libraries, then on the name of my custom list.
When the list displays, the Workflows section of the page has a "Modified Workflow" displayed.
When I right click on it, no menu is shown. When I click on the modified workflow, I get the workflow settings page for that workflow.
I am trying to figure out how to create the copy of the workflow so that I can modify one of the mail messages in SharePoint designer.
Is there someone who has some advice on how to find this copy and modify option? Or perhaps a web site, web forum, article series, or book covering the topic?
Thank you!

Hi lwvirden,
According to your description, my understanding is that you want to modify the OOB approval workflow in SharePoint Designer.
After opening the site in SharePoint Designer, just click Workflows in the left panel and then the workflows in the site will load in the right part.
If you want to copy and modify the OOB approval workflow, then you need to right the approval workflow
Approval – SharePoint 2010 under Globally Reusable Workflow. After that you will see the
Copy and Modify button.
Best regards.
Thanks
Victoria Xia
TechNet Community Support

Out of the box workflow of type Approval - SharePoint 2010 not recording approver comments

When I am implement my approval workflow, two new fields are created - Approval Status and Approver Comments.
The Approval Status field gets a value of either Rejected, Pending, or Approved.
The Approver Comments is not getting any value, even though I am entering comments in the popup approve workflow task and those comments are appearing in the emails sent.
Why do the comments not show up in the item's Approver Comments column?

Hi,
With
SPWorkflowAssociation.AssociationData property, we can get the assignees’ information. Your script can
be able to retrieve a XML format data which contains the user name we need:
So the next step would be getting the user name by parsing the XML data we got.
The two links below will show how to parse XML with PowerShell:
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/18032147/parsing-xml-using-powershell
http://blogs.technet.com/b/heyscriptingguy/archive/2012/03/26/use-powershell-to-parse-an-xml-file-and-sort-the-data.aspx
With the user name, we can get the
Email property of an user with the scripts as the link below provided:
http://davidlozzi.com/2012/03/07/using-powershell-to-access-sharepoint-sites/
Best regards
Patrick Liang
TechNet Community Support

Out of the box sharepoint online 2013 workflow

Hi All,
I have a workflow that sends a email to a user after creating a new document.
Now a want to attach a document to this email but this is not possible with the out of the box SharePoint 2013 solution. I use the SP 2010 workflow because I need to send a email to an external user.
Is there a solution that I can use to attach a document to a email in a workflow?

Not possible out of the box. Just curious why would you want to email someone files over the email? I think the logical way is to simply send the item link. This will show user the item details and attachments.
Anyways, If that's the way you want to do it then check the following codeplex solution out.
http://spdactivities.codeplex.com/
I would still recommend you to send the current Item URL in the email instead of sending document as an attachment.
If this helped you resolve your issue, please mark it Answered

Out of the box porlets for Content Management with BEA Portal

I am looking at BEA Portal for a simple Intranet site with some basic content management system capabilities. I would like to implement this without the use of a third party tool and wanted to know if there are any open source or out of the box BEA portlets/web-apps with basic CMS capabilities beyond what has been shown in the Portal tutorials around CMS. From doing the tutorials, I have learned how to manage content, and how to build a site from scratch to access the content using the <cm:> tags. However, without additional third party products such as Documentum or Interwoven, is there any free BEA/open source portlets to:
- Configure exposure of this content in a runtime framework? (ie content manager can expose new content from the repository by a configurable admin GUI, place where this content is on the page)
- Allow for a simple approval workflow where content that gets added to the repository by user A has to be approved by user B before automatically exposing?
Interested to know if custom portal type development is the only way to do these kind of simple functions, or third party product.

Hi,
Did you have a chance to look into WebLogic Portal 8.1 SP3? Check out the new Library Services features, which includes versioning and simple approval:
http://e-docs.bea.com/wlp/docs81/adminportal/help/CM_MAN_LifecycleOV.html
We also provide a few ootb portlets that allow users to interact with the CM system. Let us know if you have additional questions.
Best Regards,
--alex

Sharepoint Out of the Box as Business Process Management (BPM) Tool

How Sharepoint out of the box can be used as Business Process Management tool? Like we have K2.

Hi Bharat,
Thanks for posting your query,
All versions of SharePoint support workflows based on windows workflow foundation. SharePoint Server includes some predefined advanced workflows such as Approval, Collect feedback, Collect signatures. WSS 3.0 and SharePoint foundation contains simple "3
steps workflow".
But all versions support custom workflows and custom worflow steps created in SharePoint Designer or Visual Studio.
You can customize forms with SharePoint Designer, Visual Studio or InfoPath.
Also, check out below mentioned URLs to know more on this functionality in SharePoint 2013
https://support.office.com/en-sg/article/Overview-of-workflows-included-with-SharePoint-d74fcceb-3a64-40fb-9904-cc33ca49da56
http://www.actsolution.net/Pages/SharePoint/Business-Process-Management.aspx
http://www.slideshare.net/SPTechConSanFrancisco/using-sharepoint-for-business-process-management-by-eugene-rosenfeld-sptechcon
http://www.slideshare.net/AndreasAschauer/sharepoint-2013-as-a-bpm-workflow-management-system
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee424392(v=office.15).aspx
I hope this is helpful to you, mark it as Helpful.
If this works, Please mark it as Answered.
Regards,
Dharmendra Singh (MCPD-EA | MCTS)
Blog : http://sharepoint-community.net/profile/DharmendraSingh

Can i reset N8 to out of the box condition?

Hi everyone,
I was thinking of restoring nokia N8 to "out of the box"(just purchased) condition. As we know that a soft reset(*#7370#) along with a factory reset(*#7780#) does exactly the same thing in a s^1 phone and one doesn't loose anything that comes as a part of firmware(or as i understand, please confirm/clear if its otherwise).
But in case of s^3 devices(came to know from a sticky thread above), its not the case and one looses some stuff that came preloaded on the phone(should be part of the firmware as far as i understand).
So what i want to know is the consequences of (i.e. what i loose from my phone):-
1. Performing a *#7370#
2. Performing a *#7780# 3. Pressing the power key for 8 secs
On a nokia N8.
I want to restore the original folder structure and keep my device neatly managed(a bit obsessed to keep things in order, though i'm not suffering from obsessive compulsive disorder, lol). So please help me to achieve this.
[N.B: i don't want to go to nokia care point to get this done, or to get stuff reloaded if i loose something that came preset].
Thanks for patience.

@Roshanrims
Last observations are that not surprised N8 so cheap on pre-owned market as who can be bothered faffing around (after three finger power on reset to remove data) when selling to try to get it back as it should be.
Be aware that irrespective of "Hard reset" or re-flashing firmware whenever OVI Store is opened again on N8 it asks are you "username" and asks for password!
Have always found that after "hard reset" always seems to fail initial prompt to sign in to Nokia account with "try later" but that maybe because in marginal mobile reception area.
Long as you copy any .dcf material off mass memory it can always be restored later.
Happy to have helped forum with a Support Ratio = 42.5

Decoding the "Out of the box Demonstration"

Hi folks,
I am doing the out of the box demonstrations on SAP xApps for Personal Productivity_Request for Quotation Approval.
The demo works fine as written in the SAP documents and the recorded demonstrations.
Here I want to know how the scenario has been orchestrated.
I want to look at the VIsual composer and the WebDynpro.
Would anyone plese let me know
1. where the webDynpros and the VCs of this scenario are saved? and
2. how I can look at their details? I mean how they have been constructed?
for Visual Composer, I looked at the Public Model of Visual composer screen.
there I could find the VCs only for the procurement scenario and xApp Analytics.
For WebDynpro, I looked at the contents management
->WebDynpro link but couldnot get to the details.
I am urgently looking forward to hearing from you.
Many thanks

Hi Sudeep,
For the VC model of Quotation Approval Scenario you can get it by navigating in the portal content directory under:
Visual Composer -> Models -> com.sap.pcomp.1L8W.QuotationApproval -> com.sap.pcomp.model->QuotationApproval
Right click on it and then "Open in Storyboard". The VC model for the composite application will open in the VC storyboard. You can check there how it has been modeled.(note the code 1L8W maybe different in your portal).
For the webdynpro we have not packaged the code. The developer in my team who has developed it is currently on vacation this week and we will be able to provide to you via mail (zip file or so), when he is back next week.
I hope this is fine with you.
Regards
Sijesh

Out of the box approval workflow suddenly failed on start (retrying)

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