Symptoms

I am developing the workflow using K2 Application for SharePoint, while I was going to test on workflow with the SharePoint list, we came to realize that the list schema does not match with the current environment. Therefore, we exported the list from current production environment and import it into our development environment, deleted all the related SmartObjects in Smartobjects Service tester and create it again.

However, I am not able to create the workflow and SmartObjects from K2 Application for SharePoint with this error message "Thread 1: List does not exist. The page you selected contains a list that does not exist. It may have been deleted by another user. " I have also tried to creating the workflow using K2 Studio but I am not able to locate the list in the Start rule.
 

Diagnoses

The error is caused by lookup columns in the SharePoint list that the user is trying to create the K2 application from. When importing the SharePoint list from another environment, the lists that the lookup columns are referring to do not exist in the user's environment. As a result, K2 prompts an error stating "List does not exists".
 

Resolution

Removing the lookup columns or importing all the dependency lists before re-importing the actual list again will resolve the issue.

Here are a few key points to prevent the same issue from happening again in the future.

1. Use the K2 for SharePoint 2013 app to create your SmartObjects. K2 Support currently do not support the creation of SharePoint SmartObjects using the SmartObject Service Tester.

2. If you have imported any list or library from another environment, check to make sure all the fields are working properly first. In your cases, there are a few lookup columns that not working properly, which result in the error message you are seeing when you create the SmartObjects.

3. If your list has lookup columns, make sure to import or create the lookup lists first. In case you need the lookup columns in your list, I recommend you export all the lookup lists from your production environment and import them into your development environment. After that, re-import your actual list again and check if the lookup columns are working properly. Once everything is working properly, you can proceed to create your SmartObjects and the error should not appear again.