An error occured while retrieving the workflow task details.

Users trying to open a task via Outlook receive the following:



“An error occurred while retrieving the workflow task details. This may be caused by:

• Not having connectivity to the server
• The task no longer exists
• You do not have permissions to access the task

If this error persists, contact your system administrator.

---

I recently received this error from users trying to approve tasks using the open this task button in Outlook. I was creating/testing these new tasks via SharePoint Designer Workflow. This issue occurred for regular users but not for Site Collection Administrators. This was baffling as the task had no custom permissions and all users had contribute to the task list.


Steps I took in trying to resolve:
1. Delete the Approval .xsn via SharePoint Designer and republish the workflow. This populates the native Approval xsn again and sometimes can resolve issues such as this.


2. Republish the form and recreate the workflow completely with a  new tasks list. This did not work. Error occurred again.


3. Check the workflow permissions. Without permissions to the workflow, users will see the (.xsn) error because they cannot access it. Did you know that there is a workflow library? Did you know that the workflow library has permissions you can configure? Did you know that workflow permissions are inherited from the Site? Here is how I solved my problem:

• Open the site in SharePoint Designer
• Click All Files (folder icon on the left nav)
• Right Click on Workflows (Folder icon with a circlular arrow)
  • Choose properties
• Choose “Administration Web Page” from the ribbon
  • 
• Click on Permissions for this document library
• Here it is inherited from the Site. You need to either change the site permissions or break the inheritance and add your users which will need to approve tasks to these permissions. The basic access “Read” will be enough so that they will not see the .xsn error anymore.

Good luck!


-Logan Branjord

Unable to display this web part: The response from database contains more than '2000' rows.

While using SharePoint Business Data Connectivity App to query a SQL Database, I received: The response from database contains more than '2000' rows. The list would no longer populate, in its place, an ugly red error message.

After some readying, I discovered that means I have hit the default throttling limit set by SharePoint. I had the option of filtering your query to be more specific or to increase the limit to allow the large query to run. Here is a PowerShell script which is used to Increase the BDC Throttle Limit:

1. Run PowerShell as administrator
2. Get-SPServiceApplicationProxy
   1. This command will give you a list of all Service apps and their GUID. You want to copy the GUID for the BDC app you’re working with.
3. Get-SPBusinessDataCatalogThrottleConfig -Scope Database -ThrottleType Items -ServiceApplicationProxy xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
   1. Where the xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx are, replace with the GUID for the BDC app which you copied in step 2.
4. The returned data will show you the current limitations – which should say ‘2000’ rows unless you’ve already increased this limit in the past.
5. $Db = Get-SPBusinessDataCatalogThrottleConfig -Scope Database -ThrottleType Items -ServiceApplicationProxy xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
6. Set-SPBusinessDataCatalogThrottleConfig -Identity $Db -maximum 20000 -default 20000
7. 1. Replace the xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx with the BDC App GUID from step 2.
   2. Replace the ‘20000’ with a different number if you desire. This is going to be the new throttle limit.
8. Refresh your SharePoint page and you should now see your content without the error!

A form template (.xsn) file cannot be accessed. You may not have the required permissions to open the file.

November 19, 2014November 19, 2014 ~ lbranjord ~ Edit

 

OH NO! Error opening a task! I can’t approve the Workflow Task!

Recently received this error when creating a new task via SharePoint Designer Workflow. This issue occurred for regular users but not for Site Collection Administrators. This was baffling as the task had no custom permissions and all users had contribute to the task list. First step I took was to look up the ULS log entry for the correlation id. Here is the result: The XSN is null and its not a cross server issue. Most likely a permission issue.


Steps I took in trying to resolve:


1. Delete the Approval .xsn via SharePoint Designer and republish the workflow. This populates the native Approval xsn again and sometimes can resolve issues such as this.


2. Republish the form and recreate the workflow completely with a  new tasks list. This did not work. Error occurred again.


3. Check the workflow permissions. Without permissions to the workflow, users will see the (.xsn) error because they cannot access it. Did you know that there is a workflow library? Did you know that the workflow library has permissions you can configure? Did you know that workflow permissions are inherited from the Site? Here is how I solved my problem:

• Open the site in SharePoint Designer
• Click All Files (folder icon on the left nav)
• Right Click on Workflows (Folder icon with a circlular arrow)
  • Choose properties
• Choose “Administration Web Page” from the ribbon
  • 
• Click on Permissions for this document library
• Here it is inherited from the Site. You need to either change the site permissions or break the inheritance and add your users which will need to approve tasks to these permissions. The basic access “Read” will be enough so that they will not see the .xsn error anymore.

Good luck!


-Logan Branjord

Internet Explorer not responding when Syncing MS Project Tasks to SharePoint

Microsoft Project tasks can sync with SharePoint tasks. If your browser hangs during the sync and gives you the "Not Responding" message...verify the following:

Task sync limitations	Syncing more than 1,000 tasks is not recommended. If you want to sync more than 1,000 tasks, consider breaking down your project into multiple projects, and then sync the projects separately.
SharePoint required fields	If a project plan doesn’t contain a field that is required in SharePoint, the plan won’t sync. Add the required field as a custom field in Project.
Project field contains a formula	SharePoint fields don’t support formulas. Try removing the formula from the field in Project and then resyncing.
Summary task name	SharePoint assumes summary tasks will become folders on the site, so it doesn’t allow characters that are not allowed in folders: . / : * ? < > |Make sure that none of your summary tasks in Project contain any of these characters.

If none of those are the cause, you may need to open Internet Explorer in 32-bit:




Open Internet Explorer in 32-bit:




1.Browse to: C:\Program Files (x86)\Internet Explorer


2.Click on iexplore application (this is the 32 bit internet explorer version)




Note - You may still have 64 bit pinned onto your taskbar. You can unpin it at any time and pin the 32 bit version.




Now your tasks should sync without the browser failing with "Not responding".




- Logan Branjord