Terminate running or suspended Workflows in SharePoint 2013 or 2016

There are many options to kill workflows in SharePoint which are built on SharePoint 2010 platform. It is a bit more difficult to terminate those on 2013 platform.

Here is a script that terminates all workflows based on their status. It is also possible to filter for specific items with a CAML query and it iterates trough large lists in batch size (of eg. 2000 items), so you won't run in a timeout or memory issue.

In the script there is a second part that will take care of the 2010 workflows, which is located between comment tags.

	Add-PSSnapin "Microsoft.SharePoint.PowerShell" -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue
	$webURL = "https://webapplication/sitecollection/site" #change this to the url of the site
	$listName = "Listname" #change this to the corresponding list
	$web = Get-SPWeb $webURL
	$count = 0
	$countTarget = 0
	$spQuery = New-Object Microsoft.SharePoint.SPQuery
	$spQuery.ViewAttributes = "Scope='Recursive'";
	$spQuery.RowLimit = 2000 #terminates the workflows in batches
	$caml = "<Where><Eq><FieldRef Name='Fieldname' /><Value Type='Text'>Contenttofilter</Value></Neq></Where>" #this filter will be used to terminate workflows on specific items
	$spQuery.Query = $caml
	if($web -ne $null) {
	$web.AllowUnsafeUpdates = $true;
	$list = $web.Lists[$listName]
	$wfm = New-object Microsoft.SharePoint.WorkflowServices.WorkflowServicesManager($web)
	$sub = $wfm.GetWorkflowSubscriptionService()
	$wfs = $sub.EnumerateSubscriptionsByList($list.ID)
	$wfis = $wfm.GetWorkflowInstanceService()
	do {
	$listItems = $list.GetItems($spQuery)
	$spQuery.ListItemCollectionPosition = $listItems.ListItemCollectionPosition
	foreach($item in $listItems)
	{
	$countTarget++;
	#Write-Host "Working on item $($item.ID)" -ForegroundColor Cyan
	#SP2013 WORKFLOWS
	$workflowInstances = $wfis.EnumerateInstancesForListItem($list.ID,$item.ID)
	foreach($wf in $workflowInstances)
	{
	if($wf.Status -eq "Suspended") { #status to get and terminate, can also be -ne "Completed" or -eq "Started"
	$wfName = $wfs | ?{$_.Id -eq $wf.WorkflowSubscriptionId} | select -ExpandProperty Name
	$wfID= $wf.ID
	$wfStatus = $wf.Status
	$wfListItem = $item.Name
	$count++;
	$wfis.TerminateWorkflow($wf);
	Write-Host "Workflow $($wfName) cancelled for: $wfListItem - $($wf.Status)";
	#write-host "Workflow Title: $wfName Status: $wfStatus ListItem: $wfListItem"
	}
	}
	#SP2010 WORKFLOWS
	<#
	foreach ($workflow in $item.Workflows)
	{
	$wfName = $workflow.ParentAssociation.Name
	$wfStatus = $workflow.InternalState
	write-host "Workflow Title: $wfName Status: $wfStatus"
	#Disregard Completed Workflows
	if($workflow.InternalState -ne "Completed")
	{
	#Cancel Workflows
	#[Microsoft.SharePoint.Workflow.SPWorkflowManager]::CancelWorkflow($workflow);
	Write-Host "Workflow $($workflow.Title) cancelled for: " $item.ID;
	#$count++;
	}
	}
	#>
	}
	}
	while ($spQuery.ListItemCollectionPosition -ne $null)
	$web.AllowUnsafeUpdates = $false;
	$web.Dispose();
	Write-Host "Processed $countTarget items and found $count workflows"
	} else {
	Write-Host "Web not configured" -ForegroundColor Red
	}

view raw TerminateSpWorkflows.ps1 hosted with ❤ by GitHub