Parallel flow branches deadlocked: join never completed

An approval activity in one of the parallel branches is stuck in pending state due to missing or inactive approvers, preventing the branch from completing. (high likelihood)

A script activity within a parallel branch contains an unhandled exception or infinite loop that prevents the branch from transitioning to the next activity. (high likelihood)

A timer activity or wait condition in a parallel branch has an incorrect configuration that never evaluates to true, leaving the branch perpetually waiting. (medium likelihood)

Database locks or transaction timeouts are preventing workflow activities from updating their state properly, causing branches to appear incomplete. (medium likelihood)

Custom workflow activities or business rules are interfering with the normal workflow state progression by modifying workflow context inappropriately. (low likelihood)

Step 1: Navigate to Workflow > All Contexts and locate the deadlocked workflow instance using the context ID from the error message to examine the current state of all parallel branches.

Step 2: Check each parallel branch activity state in the workflow context viewer to identify which specific activities are not in 'finished' state and are blocking the join.

Step 3: For stuck approval activities, navigate to Service Catalog > My Approvals or the sysapproval_approver table to check if approvals are pending and verify approver user accounts are active.

Step 4: Review script activities in stuck branches by examining their execution logs in System Log > Script Log Statements and look for JavaScript errors or infinite loops that may have caused execution to halt.

Step 5: For timer or wait activities, verify the condition logic and duration settings are correct and that any referenced variables or fields contain valid values.

Step 6: Manually complete stuck activities by right-clicking on them in the workflow context and selecting 'Skip' or 'Force Complete' to allow the join to proceed, then monitor for successful completion.

Step 7: If the issue persists, check for active business rules or custom scripts that may be modifying workflow state by reviewing recently modified records in the sys_script table.

Step 8: Consider adding workflow timeout settings using the 'glide.workflow.max_running_time' system property to automatically terminate deadlocked workflows after a specified duration.