Before anyone starts linking me to other threads, I'm aware of Creating an item programatically won't start a Nintex Workflow  and Workflow not triggering after list item update  and I think it's something different. But due to 'reasons' I can't make sure yet.

So we have 2 lists. One for a Business Unit and one for the respective dispatcher of a contractor. The contractor being the one doing the 'work' defined in the permit.

• Work permit - base (henceforth referred to as Base)
• Work permit - overrule (henceforth referred to as Overrule)

Base:

A permit is made in this list by the Business Unit listing base Safety and Hazard protocols. A BU still knows best about all the general hazards in their own environment. Upon creating an item in this list an exact copy is made in Overrule (done so by a workflow).

Overrule

once a permit is made here from Base, the dispatcher changes the permit to add health and safety precautions specific to the work that'll be done by the contractor. After changing this item, there will be no automatic update to Base.

Example:

Cleaning windows in a laboratory.
     Base item: permit with precautions concerning working around chemicals (This is copied to overrule as is...)

     Overrule: previous permit is added with information about working on ladders but not copied back to Base.

It speaks for itself that, should this task be done each week, that this will cause unnecessary administration. So we added an exception to Overrule that if a certain option is selected, that instead of saving the current item, a New Item is created in Base. This should trigger our workflow to create an item in Overrule, but this is where things get weird. This doesn't happen. If a user creates an item in Base the workflow starts, if the workflow from Overrule creates an item in Base the workflow in Base to create the copy in Overrule doesn't start.

Now back to our threads in my first line. I'd still think this is the case, however there are other lists that do not have this issue. When an item is created, even if it's started by 'system account', everything works fine.

Putting up pictures of the workflow is not going to help much because that workflow is rather large. But I attached a snippet from the part where the item is created from Overrule to Base. That part of the workflow is 'run as owner'. And the owner is just a service account, which has just about the same permissions as I do.

If my explanation isn't clear enough, please do tell.

EDIT: changed picture