"In Progress" Workflow tasks are locked after updating to SharePoint 2010 SP1

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Symptoms

Workflow tasks created from Out of the Box workflows cannot be completed after installing Service Pack 1 for SharePoint Server 2010. The error message “The task is currently locked by a running workflow and cannot be edited" is shown when a task assigned by the workflow (like “Approve” or “Reject”) attempts to complete. This behavior occurs when the task is "In Progress" before Service Pack 1 is installed.

Affected workflow templates:

- Approval – SharePoint 2010

- Collect Feedback – SharePoint 2010

- Publishing Approval Workflow

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Cause

Every workflow task has a reference to its workflow definition. When there is an in-flight workflow and its tasks, the Workflow definition file of the original Out of the Box workflows is replaced with new ones if we upgrade the farm or Site Collection with Service Pack 1. This makes the tasks of the previous version of Out of the Box workflows lose the reference to their workflow definition and get into locked state when a task assigned attempts to update (complete like “Approve” or “Reject”). Eventually workflow instances of the previous version of Out of the Box workflows cannot be completed.

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Resolution

To resolve this issue, install the hotfixes that are provided in the following articles in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

2687614 Description of the SharePoint Server 2010 hotfix package (Coreservermui-xx-xx.msp): October 30, 2012

2687557 Description of the SharePoint Foundation 2010 hotfix package (Wss-x-none.msp): October 30, 2012

Note You must install these hotfixes after you install SharePoint 2010 SP1.

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Workaround

Without the physical file of the version of workflow definition before the upgrade, we cannot complete the tasks unless we restore the workflow definition file of the previous version. So we recommend the Customers to restart the stopped (locked) workflows by clicking “Terminate this Workflow now” menu in workflow status page shown below, which will also remove all the locked tasks related to that workflow.