I have integrated an approval workflow with SharePoint on the Document content type. (Not ideal I know, but hear me out). My workflow only kicks in when a new Document, or content type based on Document, is added.

But one of the first things the workflow does is pull in details from the SharePoint_Item and WFIProcessField XML process fields to inspect the library, site and contenttype. It then checks these against a configuration database using a smart object to see if the approval workflow needs to run on this content type in this library, etc.

Obviously Document itself is not a contenttype we are controlling, it's things more domain-specific for the customer.

Putting all that aside, here's my problem though. After working for the best part of a week, all of a sudden when I add a new item to a library, the workflow starts, but the ContentType inside SharePoint_Item is not being populated.

Any idea why?