---
title: Why an automation or workflow did not run
url: https://tideswell.xyz/docs/troubleshooting/automation-did-not-run
description: For an automation, read its health line. For a workflow, check it is both published and switched on.
---

> Documentation index: fetch https://tideswell.xyz/llms.txt to discover every page before exploring further.

# Why an automation or workflow did not run



Automations and workflows fail for different reasons, so start by knowing which you have. An
**automation** is one Tideswell ships. A **workflow** is one somebody in your workspace built.

## An automation did not run [#an-automation-did-not-run]

Work down these in order.

**Is the amber banner up?** Automations switched off for the whole environment means nothing
runs, whatever the individual cards say.

**Is the card switched on?** Most alerting automations ship switched off.

**What does the health line say?** It answers the question directly:

* **Never run** means it has not come round yet. Press **Run now**.
* **No alert** means it ran and there was nothing to report. This is the healthy state, and it is
  the most misread line on the screen.
* **Failed** names its reason.
* A **skipped** run names what was missing, usually a module switched off or a data source not
  connected.

**Did it find things but notify nobody?** Found 4, notified 0 means the recipient list is empty
or nobody holds the required access. See <Ref to="automations/choose-who-gets-alerted" />.

Full detail in <Ref to="automations/check-it-worked" />.

## A workflow did not run [#a-workflow-did-not-run]

**Is it published, and separately, is it switched on?** These are two independent controls and
this is the commonest cause by a distance. A workflow's status can read published while its
toggle is off, and it will not run.

**Has enough time passed?** Workflows are not instant: changes are picked up on a cycle of a few
minutes, and a change originating in Shopify takes another poll to be noticed.

**Did the record change in a way the trigger watches?** A **changed** trigger with watched fields
ticked ignores every other edit. See <Ref to="workflows/choose-a-trigger" />.

**Is the Workflow engine automation switched on?** Turning that one card off stops every workflow
in the workspace at once.

**Is the Automations module on?** With it off, the whole section including workflows is
unreachable.

## The workflow ran but did the wrong thing [#the-workflow-ran-but-did-the-wrong-thing]

Open the **Runs** tab and read the run as a story. Each step says what it was set up to do and
what it actually did.

**Check which handle each line leaves from.** A condition has a green **Yes** dot and a red
**No** dot, and a line drawn from the wrong one produces a workflow that works perfectly at
exactly the wrong moment. This is the most common build mistake and it is invisible once the
canvas is tidy.

**Read what the condition decided.** The run says whether it matched and which path it took,
which usually reveals that the comparison was not what you thought.

## A run says cancelled [#a-run-says-cancelled]

The loop guard refused it, and it says why.

That happens when a workflow has run repeatedly for the same record in a short window, which
almost always means it is setting itself off: it updates a field on the triggering record, and
that update re-triggers it.

Fix it by ticking **watched fields** on the trigger so only the fields that should cause a run
do. Refused runs are dropped rather than queued, so they will not arrive later in a flood. See
<Ref to="workflows/create-tasks-and-records" />.

## A step failed but the rest worked [#a-step-failed-but-the-rest-worked]

The run reads **partially completed** in amber, which is normal on a workflow with two branches.

Common step failures name themselves: a Notify aimed at a department with nobody active in it, a
triggering record deleted before the run, or an action the workflow **owner** no longer has
permission for.

That last one is worth checking after somebody leaves. Every action a workflow takes uses its
owner's access, so a workflow owned by a departed colleague fails visibly. See
<Ref to="workflows" />.

## Nothing at all has run since a settings change [#nothing-at-all-has-run-since-a-settings-change]

Somebody probably switched off a module. Its automations go dormant and record skipped runs
saying so.

Check <Ref to="workspace-admin/modules" />.