I have a particularly strange problem with regard to workflows.

On a multi-tenanted farm, one tenant is exhibiting the following behaviour.

1. A site collection admin (user A) created a 2013 workflow in SharePoint Designer 2013 and published.
2. User A tested the functionality of the workflow and all worked well.
3. Another user logs in (user B) to run the workflow from the list but cannot because the workflow isn't even visible.
4. User B opens SharePoint designer and navigates to the same site and cannot see the workflow.
5. User A logs in using SharePoint Designer once again and can still see the workflow.
6. Now we did the opposite, User B now created a workflow and was successfully able to use it. However, User A can not see User B's workflow.

The above site in use was a Project Web App instance. There was another PWA instance in another site collection in the same web application and this was exhibiting the same behaviour.

In trying to diagnose the issue, I created another PWA instance in a new site collection in a new content database. The above issue was NOT present.

I created another PWA instance, this time in a new site collection but in the same content database. The above issue was NOT present.

The web application has an alternate access mapping but since the other two new site collections are working, I can't see this being the issue.

All other tenants in the farm are working fine. Essentially I have two site collections associated to one web application that is exhibiting this issue and I don't know where else to look.

In a Pre Production environment (our copy of the farm), I disconnected workflow manager and re-registered it again to the farm. The problem still persisted.

Any help or tips appreciated!

• Edited by Peter T Williams Tuesday, May 26, 2015 12:45 PM

Hi

I think you must install SP1 for Sharepoint designer 2013

https://www.microsoft.com/fr-FR/download/details.aspx?id=42015

And verify the autorisation for user B

Thanks Said but SP1 (64-bit version) is already installed.

This has probably happened because the workflows are checked-out. 

Use the following steps to diagnose it this is indeed the issue

1.       Run SharePoint Manager 
2.       Go to site that has workflow issues 
3.       Open folder named WfSVC Root Folder inside Root Folder
4.       The property RequiresCheckout would be set to True. If it is set to false then the problem is not the same
5.       Repeat steps 3-4 but this time, do it for a site where workflows are behaving correctly
6.       The property RequiresCheckout would be set to False

It this is indeed the problem, the solution is to check-in the WfSVC folder. I am not aware of any UI/API option to do it. So the solution below is using direct update query on content database which is not supported by Microsoft and could have undesired consequences. So do it on your own risk.

1.       Use the following SQL query (change items in red) to fix it

update [DBNAME].dbo].[AllLists]

 set tp_flags =

( select top 1 tp_Flags from

   [DBNAME].[dbo].[AllLists]

  where tp_siteid ='Site Guid'

  and tp_webid = 'Working Web Guid'

  and tp_title = 'wfsvc' )

  where tp_siteid ='Site Guid'

  and tp_webid = 'Non working Web Guid'

  and tp_title = 'wfsvc'

1.       In the query above, replace
   • Site GUID with the Site Collection GUID of both webs (assuming both webs are under same site collection) .This Guid could be taken from All Sites or All Webs table.
   • DBNAME with the content database name. e.g. T13_DTZM_WSS_Content
   • 'Working web Guid' with the Guid of the site where workflows are working fine.
   • Non working web Guid with the Guid of the site where workflows are not working fine.
2.       Once the SQL executes successfully, create and publish a new workflow to test.

Cheers

Hi Hammad,

I tested this out and it worked! Thank you.

I got the GUIDs you mentioned by running the following SQL query against the content database

SELECT  [Id] ,[SiteId] ,[FullUrl] FROM [WSS_Content].[dbo].[AllWebs]
  where FullUrl = 'ReplaceWithWorkingSiteURL' or FullUrl = 'ReplaceWithNonworkingSiteURL'

Thank you, Peter Williams