Alteryx Designer Error with Red X's? What kind of error is this?

Out of curiousity, I'm asking if anyone knows what type of error this is. Designer froze and areas of the canvas were covered in red X's. I'm on version 2018.4.

(the black boxes were added by me)

I was able to restart Alteryx and everything is working fine. Just curious as to what caused this type of error.

Error Message

Accepted answers

jpoz

It means that an unexpected error happened when the software was attempting to draw those portions of the application.

If you are able to reproduce this error, please let us know how so we can fix it. Thank you!

All comments

jpoz

It means that an unexpected error happened when the software was attempting to draw those portions of the application.

If you are able to reproduce this error, please let us know how so we can fix it. Thank you!

jpoz

Are you seeing this error when closing Designer? Or does this happen while it is open and you have not attempted to close it?

Eamonn

Hi JPoz,
Encountered the same issue but unable to replicate. The exception error was encountered when executing the workflow. Interestingly enough designer continues to run the workflow to completion.

thanks,

Eamonn

jpoz

@Eamonn What version of Alteryx are you on?

Eamonn

@jpoz , Its 2018.3

jpoz

@Eamonn If you ever figure out the exact steps you are doing to reproduce it, please let me know. I will say that we fixed at least one of these sorts of bugs since 2018.3, but I cannot remember the exact reproduction steps.

tkreykes

I have found that I can still save after the red X occurs so I won't lose work, but it's annoying because once it starts, it seems to happen a lot.

mkacavas

I see this error when I try to copy and paste from one workbook to another. I'm using version 2020.3.5.

SWalker

Thanks, @jpoz

I am repeatedly getting this error after downloading a workflow from the community, and then, adding the workflow to a tool container and copying/ pasting the container to a different workflow.

afellows

Was there any solution found for this? I get this fairly often and alteryx ends up crashing afterwards. I think it is due to cached data but I can't narrow down the cause more than that. It doesn't appear that my RAM is all used up. Using Version: 2023.1.1.247 Patch: 2.

ddiesel

I also see this fairly often now in version 2022.1.1.42654, specifically in the overview pane. It continues to be a minor annoyance.

Screenshot 2023-10-10 164328.png

dataguyW

This is anecdotal at best, but one thing I have been doing when using either container controls OR tool containers (basically anything with a blue slider to "disable" the container) is to click to disable the control and then just wait. It seems that it happens more if I disable a control with a lot of objects and don't give it time to refresh before it has had time to "Auto Configure" or the equivalent of hitting Function+F5 to re-validate the workflow. Since doing that, I have had virtually no red "X" errors. I also say a little prayer when disabling and make sure I've saved beforehand, so I am not 100% trustworthy that this is the fix

mh0928

I encountered similar behavior using the Input Data tool with a long SQL statement including some giant CASE statements. When using the scrollbar or the arrow keys to navigate down within the Options window it throws an error message "An Unhandled Exception occurred" and blocks out the Options window with the red X.

If I remove a bunch of lines from the SQL statement the error disappears. My required SQL is ~1000 lines with ~70,000 characters. Once I pared it down to ~400 lines with ~30,000 characters the scroll worked as expected.

I'm using Alteryx Designer x64 version 2024.1.1.71 Patch 2.

Alteryx error 05Nov2025.png

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