Best way to handle/archive Workflow History List

Question

Hello,

I am running into issues with a custom SharePoint list where the workflow seems to be erroring but I am unable to access the workflow history list to see what has not run properly for each item. My list view threshold is set to 15,000 but the workflow history list is at 25,000. I am leaning toward just totally wiping out every item in the history list but I know that means i lose history on all workflow history for each item submitted which I dont want. Is there anything possible for me to do besides using powershell to totally empty out the list. Of course I could increase threshold to 30,000 but don't want that. I just hate not being able to see anything in the workflow history list to see what has completed or errored out.

Thanks for any help

Answer 1

@Dez-4361
The answer provided by sharatha can be used as a workaround.

Based on your description, I understand that you want to purge Workflow History list. Here’s PowerShell for you.

Note: The $cutoffDate determines which items to keep. As configured, the cutoff date will be current date - 1days. Any items older than 1days will be removed. You can set $cutoffDate according to your requirement.

$webURL = "your site collection URL"  
$cutoffDate = (Get-Date).AddDays(-1)  
   
Add-PSSnapin Microsoft.SharePoint.PowerShell -EA SilentlyContinue  
   
Write-Host "`n- Opening web site $webURL"  
$web = Get-SPWeb $webURL -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue  
if (!($web)) {  
  Write-Host -ForegroundColor Red "- Unable to open web site $webURL"  
  Exit  
}  
   
Write-Host "- Opening workflow history list"  
$list = $web.lists["Workflow History"]  
if (!($list)) {  
  Write-Host -ForegroundColor Red "- Unable to open Workflow History list"  
  $web.Dispose()  
  Exit  
}  
   
DO {  
  $cutoffDateF = "{0:MM/dd/yyyy}" -f $cutoffDate  
  Write-Host "- Looking for items where 'Date Occurred' <= $cutoffDateF"  
  Write-Host  
  $rowlimit = 100  
  $caml="<OrderBy><FieldRef Name='ID' Ascending='TRUE' /></OrderBy><OrderBy><FieldRef Name='ID' /></OrderBy>"  
  $camlQuery = New-Object Microsoft.SharePoint.SPQuery  
  $camlQuery.RowLimit = $rowLimit  
  $camlQuery.Query = $caml  
  $items = $list.GetItems($camlQuery)  
   
  If (!($items)) {  
    Write-Host -ForegroundColor Red "- No items to process"  
    Break  
  }  
   
  $itemTotal = $items.Count  
  $itemCurrent = 1  
  $itemsDeleted = 0  
  Write-Host "- Items to process: $($itemTotal)"  
  $timeStarted = Get-Date  
  For ($i=$items.count-1; $i -ge 0; $i--) {  
    $item = $items[$i]  
    $itemCurrentF = $itemCurrent.ToString().PadLeft($itemTotal.ToString().Length,"0")  
    $dateOccurredF = "{0:MM/dd/yyyy}" -f $item["Date Occurred"]  
    Write-Host "- Processing item $itemCurrentF of $($itemTotal) ... " -NoNewline  
    If ($item['Date Occurred'] -lt $cutoffDate) {  
      $item.Delete()  
      Write-Host "Deleted - $dateOccurredF <= $cutoffDateF"  
      $itemsDeleted++  
    }  
    Else {  
      Write-Host "Ignored - $dateOccurredF => $cutoffDateF"  
    }  
    $itemCurrent++  
  }  
   
  $timeFinished = Get-Date  
  $timeDuration = ("{0:hh\:mm\:ss}" -f ($timeFinished - $timeStarted))  
  If ($timeDuration.Length -gt 8) { $timeDuration = $timeDuration.Substring(0,12) }  
  Else { $timeDuration += ".000" }  
  $timeTotalSeconds = [Math]::Round(($timeFinished - $timeStarted).TotalSeconds)  
  $deletedPerSecond = [Math]::Round($itemsDeleted / $timeTotalSeconds)  
  Write-Host  
  Write-Host "Batch Started:  $timeStarted"  
  Write-Host "Batch Finished: $timeFinished"  
  Write-Host "Batch Duration: $timeDuration"  
  Write-Host  
  Write-Host "Total Seconds:  $timeTotalSeconds"  
  Write-Host "Items Deleted:  $itemsDeleted"  
  Write-Host "Deleted/Second: $deletedPerSecond"  
  Write-Host  
} UNTIL ($itemsDeleted -le 0)  
   
$web.dispose()  

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Answer 2

Just change the Workflow History List to a New History List for the Existing workflow List, in that way All the currently running instance will use the Workflow History List and newly created instances will goes to New History List which is going to be your New Workflow History List. you can do this via SharePoint Designer, below article will help you to create a workflow history list.

https://www.spguides.com/sharepoint-online-workflow-history-list/

Thanks & Regards,