This usually means that there is a temp file issue in the app pool. Typically an IISRESET will do the trick to clear it out. Reboots help as well.

Alternatively, there is actually an issue in the workflow that is trying to do things it shouldn't do. Like update an ID field.

See related posts:

Re: Failed to publish workflow

When publishing a workflow you receive the error "soap:ServerServer was unable to process request."

Failed to publish workflow

Failed to publish workflfow - there was a size issue to the overall workflow being to big

Error Publishing Nintex Workflow  - this post has a very good explanation of what SharePoint did to the temp folder as it controls the workflow engine and app pool

Snippet:

To highlight more concerning the second error:  "soap:ServerServer was unable to process request. ---> Failed to publish workflow: Could not find a part of the path"

When SharePoint Designer or Nintex publishes a workflow to SharePoint the Web Application App Pool Account uses its temp folder to hold the files while they are being published to SharePoint. You can see this by navigating to the App Pools Temp Folder on the Web Front End Server you are currently publishing from and publish a workflow. Many files wills how up in this Temp folder and then quickly be deleted during the publishing process. The folder path is C:Users<web app pool account>AppDataLocalTemp.

An issue can occur that causes the actual "Temp" folder to be deleted instead of just the files inside. When this occurs you receive the "Could not find a part of the path" message.

Microsoft has recommended creating a read-only file inside of the Temp folder as a work around to prevent the 'Temp' folder from ever being accidentally deleted during the process.

Here is an article that discusses this work around further: SharePoint Designer 2013: Unexpected Error on server associating the workflow - SharePoint Developer Support Team Blog -…

Be sure to complete the steps on each Web Front End Server in the farm and also each Web App Pool Accounts Temp Folder on each server.

This usually means that there is a temp file issue in the app pool. Typically an IISRESET will do the trick to clear it out. Reboots help as well.

Alternatively, there is actually an issue in the workflow that is trying to do things it shouldn't do. Like update an ID field.

I have another post with much more detail, but it was blocked by spam filter. I will try to repost it later.

Thank you Andrew,

but I found the issue, it was a bug of SharePoint. I found a TechNet article.

A temp directory was deleted and the workaround is to create a text file with read only permission.

This solved the problem.

Regards

Andrea