How do I fix a SharePoint workflow that returns an “An error occurred” message due to an inability to update an item?

Question

We recently switched from MOSS 2007 to SP 2010. We have this heavily used SharePoint Designer workflow (500 or more instances per day) that uses InfoPath to send data. This is basically a sequential approval process involving many levels of approval. After the reconfiguration, almost 90% of our workflows end in the "An error occurred" state with the following error description:

The workflow could not update the item, possibly because one or more columns for the item require a different type of information.

There is no established template for workflows that causes an error, and restarting the workflow always solves the problem.

1. We have mapped all columns / content type, and there is no difference in MOSS 2007 and the new form library

2. User permission levels not changed

Many sites mention the introduction of a pause in the workflow before the update event, but I am skeptical about this. What could be a possible cause / solution to the problem? We cannot define anything in common or direct us to the main reason among these 90% of unsuccessful work processes. Some workflow instances also result in an error:

The workflow could not update the item because it was retrieved by another user.

Answer 1

I had the same problem in the past and a 1 minute delay resolved it. In my experience, inconsistencies in terms of which elements fail and which do not make us look at the blocking problem. Otherwise, it made no sense. If we take one specific element in the list and test it, sometimes the workflow will succeed, and in other cases it will not work. Depending on the equipment used, we will get completely different results with the same configuration.

Others with a similar problem report blocking as a problem. http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/sharepoint2010customization/thread/fc4e1073-d67f-449a-b443-e5805f5358c7

It seemed to me that maybe this was a problem with locking / synchronization ... It seems that the workflow started and tried to update the fields in the doc library element before the locks in the InfoPath form that created this element were released!

When did you migrate, was new equipment involved? Also keep in mind that SharePoint 2010 requires more power than ever before in 2007.

Answer 2

The problem seems to be related to trying to change a locked field. If you do not want to introduce a 1-minute delay in the workflow before changing previously updated fields in the workflow (this should always work.), You might want to add Wait for Field Change in the Current item action between updates of the same field. In some cases, this is possible and works well in the case of Kay.

Answer 3

For me, this was due to user permissions:

The working process

created an item in another list on behalf of the user, and he had only read permissions on this list, granting permission to access another list in which he worked.

Answer 4

Before addressing the lock / sync issue, make sure your workflow is not updated to the wrong column type. In our case, we tried to update the Person or Group field with invalid data.

Answer 5

If this happens randomly, it may be pretty safe to rule out a permission issue. I think I managed to solve my problem, and based on my testing, so far everything is fine.

http://www.eveningblog.com/archive/sharepoint-2010-error-the-workflow-could-not-update-the-item/