Alteryx Server Temp Folder is getting filled with "AlteryxCEF_" folders

Question

Hey everyone,

Bit of an odd one here.

A customer upgraded their Server to 2022.1.1 and since then, their temp folder (C:\Users\<runAsAccount>\AppData\Local\Temp) has been filling up with folders of the format "AlteryxCEF_xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx".

It appears one is created for every workflow run.

A bit of research shows that the CEF part of "AlteryxCEF" refers to the Chromium Embedded Framework which basically is an embedded copy of Chrome used by various Alteryx tools to render HTML/JS content within Alteryx.
I've yet to uncover anything which suggests that this should be creating temporary folders/files with each workflow run.

The only references to Alteryx CEF are in the links below which aren't particularly enlightening.

* https://help.alteryx.com/developer/2018.3/HTML/DebuggingCEF.htm
* https://community.alteryx.com/t5/Alteryx-Designer-Desktop-Knowledge-Base/FAQ-Getting-started-with-Jupyter-Notebook/ta-p/482963#:~:text=tab%20in%20the-,AlteryxCEF,-DevTools%20window%20that

Has anyone else seen this before or know the cause?

JonathanAllenby · Answer

Another update:

* "I'm following up regarding your Temp Folder issue, which was previously identified as a defect: GCSE-1512

The fix is targeted to be included in the next release of Alteryx Designer 2024.1. which is now released for General Availability.

Refer to the published Release Notes for information on Patch Installation, Upgrade Considerations, New Features, and Fixed and Known Issues for important information in planning your upgrade activities."

JonathanAllenby · Answer

Last updates from Alteryx Support 5 months ago because I forgot to add it here:

* This issue has been identified as a bug within our product. Regrettably, at this moment, we do not have any ETA for this particular bug. Our engineering team is actively working on this.
* Here is the defect ID: TCPE-750. Yes, it is safe to delete the AlteryxCEF folders. These temporary folders are used by the UI when we open the designer, but due to the issue, they are not getting cleared automatically when we close the designer.

JonathanAllenby · Answer

Thanks for your input guys.

Further to this, we actually have an ongoing support case related to this and they just provided the following update:

* We have further investigated this issue and found that the AlteryxCEF folder is created when we open the designer, but it does not get cleared when we close it. These folders are not created by schedules. This issue is happening only in the case of the designer with the scheduler. Additionally, this does not occur with older versions of Alteryx. We have escalated this matter to our engineering team and will provide you with updates.

It sounds somewhat like the solution of setting up your own temp folder maintenance scripts should not be necessary, but I'll update this as and when further information comes to light.