Unable to Create backup/File is being used by another process

Question

Hey!

I've got 4-5 workflows that for the most part, are performing validations between multiple excel files and outputting the results for review.  These workflows contain control containers to determine the sequence of the output and prevent the "unable to access file" error.  These workflows were running successfully for 6+ months some of them almost a year, but last month I began encountering multiple errors across all of my workflows... It also seems like other workflows are running extremely slow/getting stuck on certain tools (Find Replace/Append) instead of throwing the errors from the output tools.

These flows are monthly so this is just my second cadence running them and experiencing these issues.  I'm wondering if anyone has any system configs or settings in mind that I need to check are setup correctly.  Maybe I accidentally changed something on my Desktop that is impacting the way my workflows are running?

Thanks!

Peyton

jrlindem · Answer

@peyton-brooks ya that is strange.  For what it's worth Block Until Done can help sequence writing on tabs and you can get it to work where one fully completes before the next, but as a self-proclaim control-containers fan, I prefer the control containers.  Also curious if any software version changes occurred lately for you... so many things could be impacting performance.

peyton-brooks · Answer

Thank you both for your responses.  Apologies, I should've clarified in the original post that I'm using Designer Desktop.

I would prefer to use control containers as my research claims those are more dynamic than block until done... and 2 reasons I'm hesitant to flip to BUD tools: 1. I would prefer to get to the root cause as I want these flows to be reliable and set up so they can run without issue time and time again 2. I am writing multiple outputs (like multiple streams of data) to different tabs on the same workbook so I don't think BUD would know to wait for the separate streams to complete to write.

I'll see if I'm able to clear the cache... I'm not admin so I might run into issues but will keep you updated. I reviewed the data files and don't see any big jumps in size.  These flows were taking <2 min to run prior to this issue so I feel like the size of the data is pretty small compared to Alteryx's capability.

dreldrel · Answer

Maybe try to replace control containers with block until done tools if possible, or use a throttle tool to give it a few seconds between each process.