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