Studio silently freezes

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1

Hello there,

When executing process robot sometimes freezes to execute the workflow. Problem is, neither robot nor a pc can understand it.

Last time it occurred was when a robot tried to work with Outlook and at the same time Outlook asked to enter a password to verify. Only when I closed the windows credentials window UiRobot thew a timeout error and proceeded to execute the process. (timeout was determined 59minutes and process stood there for 2 hours waiting)

We had an accident when a robot which is working properly for 6months one day froze while executing the process and even if there was timeout determined it ignored it. The process simply stood there for 6 hours waiting for a window to maximize, even if the timeout was 3 hours or so. When the operator maximized the window process instantly threw an error of timeout and continued the process.

We are using these handlers for frozen processes:
If process freezes (not responding), there is a bat file to restart process.
If UiPath exceeds the time it should throw an error to this invoked workflow and proceed.

… but both of them can not handle this case.

While for sure there is a workaround to this while knowing specific cases, I think the invoke workflow timeout parameter should be the most reliable option to prevent the process from freezing and in these cases it is not.

2

Hi @eQueX

Is it a Community or an Enterprise edition? If enterprise, you can always contact our technical support.

If Community Edition, then please provide more details. Preferably, please provide some information about your Studio version, activity packages versions as well as some more specifics of your process (around the place where it freezes).

3

It is a CE 2018.3.2, activity packages will be placed at the end of this post.
From what I understand there might be that UiPath sends a request to maximize the window, system responds but fails to do it and UiPath is waiting for the window to maximize.

Problem is there is no handling of this error as far as I see, as UiPath is simply stuck in this position while not executing next activity, not responding to timeout of invoking workflow. Simply put: the only escape I see is to monitor log.txt files for the last date modified with .bat file to see if a robot is still doing something.

I believe You can replicate this case with a simple workflow:

  • Use the Start Process activity and start some installer which requests admin approval
  • Extract is as a workflow and invoke in the main workflow
  • Set timeout for 00:00:10,
  • Put last activity message box with random text.

Now You can see that as long You do not accept admin approval the UiPath is waiting for the process to end even after it passes 10seconds mark.

“UiPath.UIAutomation.Activities”: “[19.1.0]”,
“UiPath.System.Activities”: “[18.4.2]”,
“UiPath.Excel.Activities”: “[2.4.6863.30657]”,
“UiPath.Mail.Activities”: “[1.2.6863.29868]”,
“Microsoft.Activities.Extensions”: “[2.0.6.9]”,
“UiPath.WebAPI.Activities”: “[1.4.0]”,
“UiPath.Vision”: “[1.3.0]”,
“BalaReva.Externals.Activities”: “[4.0.3]”,
“ExcelFileToPDF.Activities”: “[1.0.0]”,
“UiPath.Database.Activities”: “[1.2.6863.32528]”,
“VVaidya.DatatableToHTML.Activities”: “[2.1.0]”,
“VVaidya.AutoCloseMessageBox.Activities”: “[1.0.4]”,
“DatatableToHTML.Activities”: “[2.1.0]”,
“UiPath.Credentials.Activities”: “[1.1.6479.13204]”

4

Hi @eQueX

Could you try with latest UiAutomation and System activities (19.5.0), just to be sure that it wasn’t already fixed? :slight_smile:

5

Hey @loginerror

As this error is not something I know how to replicate, the only solution is to wait. I guess we can close this topic if so, as it can take a very long time to happen.

1 Like
6

Thanks! No need to close the topic, feel free to add more information if it happens again!