Problem- Two instances of workflow running on same item

  • 25 April 2016
  • 3 replies
  • 120 views

Badge +1

Recently I encountered with a problem by using Nintex workflows.

Created a sample workflow that will run on either Item added or modified in specific list

Steps I have followed:

1. Used Parallel actions. In one branch I used assign a flexi task action for approval process and in another branch I used "waiting for an update" action.

2. After approval process my intention is to update item(in my case I am updating status field value to approved).

3. In waiting for an update I am waiting for Status field to be updated with "approved" value.

4. I published and got the mail to approve/reject.

5. Without responding I made some changes to workflow(for example added log to history) and re-published.

6. Now I responded to the mail that I have received earlier by approving.

7. Here comes the problem " Two instances of workflow running on same item". I got a mail to approve/reject again.

Please suggest me how to solve this problem.


3 replies

Userlevel 5
Badge +14

this is correct/by design behavior.

once you you published new version of the workflow it became active one and previous version was deactivated to run new instances (you should see it labeled as previous version). however, this doesn't have any impact on already running instances.

so, when you approved the task you did it within previous workflow instance. the approval caused a change on an item. since you have configured the workflow to be triggered  on item change new instance of  workflow being active at that moment has been started.

Badge +16

you could change your starting conditions to be conditional to prevent this, but once you have finished making changes to your workflow you shouldn't have this problem again.

Badge +1

Thanks Cassy.

Problem is solved. For this I created a new column(val - with no value) and in workflow setting I kept the condition like "if newly added column value is empty then workflow should run" and updated that item value in workflow, which prevents workflow to run twice on same item.

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