Approval Workflow Missing in SharePoint 2016?
Problem: SharePoint approval workflow not available! This happened after migrating from SharePoint 2013 to SharePoint 2016!
Solution:
This is due to a workflow feature not being activated for the site collection. Activate the “Workflows” feature for the site collection to resolve this issue. Steps in detail:
- Login to your target site collection as a Site collection administrator
- Click on Site settings gear >> Click on “Site Collection Features” and click the activate button next to “Workflows” Feature.
- That’s it! This brings approval workflows back! And all other out-of-the-box workflows like collect feedback, Collect signatures, etc.
PowerShell Script to activate Workflows feature for all site collections:
You can use PowerShell to activate a workflow feature on all site collections, which resolves the approval workflow template missing issue.
Add-PSSnapin Microsoft.SharePoint.PowerShell -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue
#Workflow Feature ID
$FeatureID="0af5989a-3aea-4519-8ab0-85d91abe39ff"
#Get all Site collections in the farm
$SiteColl = Get-SPSite -Limit All
#$SiteColl = Get-SPWebApplication -Identity "https://intranet.crescent.com" | Get-SPSite -Limit All
#Get the Target Feature to Activate
$FeatureToActivate = Get-SPFeature | Where {$_.ID -eq $FeatureID}
#Iterate through each site collection
ForEach($Site in $SiteColl)
{
#Check if Feature is already activated
$FeatureActivated = Get-SPFeature -site $Site | Where {$_.ID -eq $FeatureId}
If($FeatureActivated -ne $null)
{
Write-Host "Feature is already activated at: "$site.Url -ForegroundColor Yellow
}
else
{
#Activate the feature
Enable-SPFeature -Identity $FeatureID -URL $Site.URL -Confirm:$False
Write-Host "Activated Feature on "$site.Url -ForegroundColor Green
}
}
