State machine stuck in change state

  • 22 January 2016
  • 8 replies
  • 275 views

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I  have created lots of Nintex workflow which contain state machine, today i found all state machine stuck in change state. try to restart SharePoint server, database, unless i turn off  'safe loop' thenre-publish the workflow, the state machine start working, i know it's not a good solution, what else i can do?


8 replies

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Tried  clean the SharePoint cache but still not works.

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Hi Steve,

I noticed that you already restart SharePoint server (do you have only one server in your SharePoint Farm?).

Mike M​'s in this post answer could help you : Nintex workflow stuck at state machine action after change state

Userlevel 7
Badge +17

That is strange Steve. Pierre does provide a great tip on restarting the service and leads into another possible issue. He asks if you have multiple servers, such as a WFE and App server separate because sometimes the App servers are setup incorrectly with the services that can also cause this issue. But if you only have one server and a sql server, then this should not be affecting you.

How many workflows do you have in your farm? Do you have any others that use Pause actions? We try to trouble shoot with similar actions to try to find a common cause in the environment as they can always be vastly different. With workflows that have pause actions, if you set it to pause for 30 minutes, does it start up again without trouble? Also, what is your sharepoint version and also nintex biuld number?

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I know this thread is very old, but we recently had a similar issue and the way we got ours fixed was by clearing up the orphaned workflow instances by running NWAdmin.exe -o SyncTerminatedWorkflows -url teamsiteurl -terminateDeletedItems

REF - SyncTerminatedWorkflows 

Badge +6

From what I can remember before we went to Online is that we used "Wait" actions before switching to a next state.

My feel (theory) in that time was that with multiple WFE's it could be that the nodes were not in sync, by having that wait statement in place or by adding extra commits that was enforced. Give it a try at least.

It was a personal observation which helped me in that time.

Badge +9

Jaap Steenis, So are you suggesting to remove the "Waits" and the "Commit pending changes" actions? I also noticed some workflows fail not at the change state, but also at the simple "Commit" with an error that it couldn't update item for possibly the field needs a different type of information. In some days it works and some don't and the updating of a field with the provided data type is not the problem for sure - Sharepoint error messages are always misleading. 

Badge +6

Christine, try using a Commit or a Wait action before changing to a next state. 

Userlevel 6
Badge +16

Could export and share the workflow with us?

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