Error publishing workflow when started automatically but not manually

Question

I have a workflow that I accidentally removed from a SharePoint Task list. When I tried to publish it from SharePoint designer 2013, I received the following error,

"Errors were found when compiling the workflow. The workflow files were saved but cannot be run. Could not publish the workflow because the workflow configuration file contains errors."

I even recreated the workflow and still received the same error when I tried to publish it. Here's the weird part, when I changed the start options to be started manually, no error was generated when published. When I changed the start options to "Start workflow automatically when an item is created" and tried to publish, I received the same error.

Any ideas what could be causing this?

Thanks!

Answer 1

Dear TheInnovator,

I create a new simple workflow and can't reproduce the issue in our environment.

Could you share the screenshots showing the workflow and the task list with the columns here for our reference?

Note: Remove any private information before uploading the screenshots.

After you change the workflow trigger as manual, can the workflow be ran successfully in your environment?

As the workflow is being replaced with Power Automate, may I know whether you have Power Automate in your environment? If yes, I suggest you create the flow instead of the workflow to get rid of re-creating the workflow with the same process for the future data migration.

SharePoint 2010 workflow retirement - Microsoft Support

Thank you for your effort and time!

Sincerely

Cliff | Microsoft Community Moderator