Workflow giving "Suspended" Error on Calculated Columns- Sending Reminder Emails on List Due Date

Question

I have created a list that has our reporting due dates plus calculated columns for 5 and 10 day reminders.
Example:
Due Date: 3/7/2014 1:00 PM
5 Day Reminder (Calculated Column= [Due Date] – 5): 3/2/2014 1:00 PM
10 Day Reminder (Calculated Column= [Due Date] -10): 2/25/2014 1:00 PM
As you can see in the list, it calculates the (5 and 10 day) reminder dates correctly in the list… 
However, what I am wanting to happen is to build a workflow that will automatically trigger and send these reminder emails.
In SP 2013 Designer, I have my conditions set as: 
I can go in on the list and set the workflow but once the due date/time comes up… The status changes from "Started" to "Suspended"-- I never receive a reminder email and I get the following error:
"RequestorId: ff5dac1d-ccee-ba1b-0000-000000000000. Details: RequestorId: ff5dac1d-ccee-ba1b-0000-000000000000. Details: An unhandled exception occurred during the execution of the workflow instance. Exception details: System.ApplicationException: HTTP
500 {"error":{"code":"-1, System.FormatException","message":{"lang":"en-US","value":"String was not recognized as a valid DateTime."}}} {"Transfer-Encoding":["chunked"],"X-SharePointHealthScore":["0"],"SPClientServiceRequestDuration":["33"],"SPRequestGuid":["ff5dac1d-ccee-ba1b-8934-5a9d0c69d3c4"],"request-id":["ff5dac1d-ccee-ba1b-8934-5a9d0c69d3c4"],"X-FRAME-OPTIONS":["SAMEORIGIN"],"MicrosoftSharePointTeamServices":["15.0.0.4420"],"X-Content-Type-Options":["nosniff"],"X-MS-InvokeApp":["1;
RequireReadOnly"],"Cache-Control":["max-age=0, private"],"Date":["Tue, 25 Feb 2014 18:49:09 GMT"],"Server":["Microsoft-IIS\/8.0"],"X-AspNet-Version":["4.0.30319"],"X-Powered-By":["ASP.NET"]}
at Microsoft.Activities.Hosting.Runtime.Subroutine.SubroutineChild.Execute(CodeActivityContext context) at System.Activities.CodeActivity.InternalExecute(ActivityInstance instance, ActivityExecutor executor, BookmarkManager bookmarkManager) at System.Activities.Runtime.ActivityExecutor.ExecuteActivityWorkItem.ExecuteBody(ActivityExecutor
executor, BookmarkManager bookmarkManager, Location resultLocation)"
The string I have set up within SP Designer for the dates is:
If Current Item:Due Date
equals Today
If Current Item:5 Day Reminder
equals
Today
If Current Item:10 Day Reminder
equals
Today
Any ideas as to what I am missing?
Thank you in advance!
Amanda

Answer 1

Hi,
To start the workflow, we have three options:
If you select the “start the workflow automatically when an item is created” or “start the workflow automatically when an item is changed”, the workflow can be started automatically.
If you don’t, your workflow will never run, and therefore never wait till the date specified.
The “Pause Until Date” action causes a workflow to pause executing until a specified date and time.
If current day is equal to the specified date, it will execute the next step.
More information:
Workflow actions quick reference (SharePoint 2013 Workflow platform)
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/jj164026.aspx
Best Regards,
Linda Li
Linda Li
TechNet Community Support