Workflow run permanently stuck in queued state; cancellation returns HTTP 500

[Tommaso20BW]

🏷️ Discussion Type

Bug

💬 Feature/Topic Area

Other

Discussion Details

A GitHub Actions workflow run in my public repository is permanently stuck in the queued state.

Repository: Tommaso20BW/Notizie_JR
Workflow: Notizie Web
Run ID: 30157630153
Run URL: https://github.com/Tommaso20BW/Notizie_JR/actions/runs/30157630153
Queued since: 2026-07-25T12:14:05Z

Every cancellation method fails:

• GitHub web interface: Failed to cancel workflow.
• REST cancel endpoint: HTTP 500, Failed to cancel workflow run
• REST force-cancel endpoint: HTTP 500, Failed to cancel workflow run
• REST delete endpoint: HTTP 403, Could not delete the workflow run

Newer runs of the same workflow have completed successfully, so the workflow and its concurrency group are not blocked. This appears to be an orphaned workflow-run record.

Is there any way for GitHub staff to cancel or remove this run server-side, or another workaround available to GitHub Free users?

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[Tommaso20BW]

Screenshot showing the workflow run still stuck in Queued, with no job start time or duration:

[jrb00013]

yo i poked at your repo Tommaso20BW/Notizie_JR — you're right that this isn't a normal "concurrency group is blocked" situation.

what i see from outside:

• newer Notizie Web runs are completing fine (including ones from today)
• so the workflow YAML / runners / concurrency aren't globally toast
• the specific run 30157630153 is basically an orphaned Actions record — stuck in queued with cancel/force-cancel returning 500, which is the server choking on a bad run state, not you clicking wrong

that's a known-ish class of Actions bug: run gets into a weird state in their backend, UI can't cancel it, API 500s, and it just sits there forever while healthy new runs keep going.

exact cleanup command (try this first)

from your machine, authenticated as the repo owner:

gh run delete 30157630153 -R Tommaso20BW/Notizie_JR

same thing via raw API if you prefer:

gh api -X DELETE repos/Tommaso20BW/Notizie_JR/actions/runs/30157630153

that should wipe the zombie run from the Actions list. if you already got 403 on delete / 500 on cancel, the record is corrupted on github's side and the CLI can't finish the job — then you need Support to purge it server-side.

what you can actually do (free plan)

1. run the gh run delete command above
2. if it 403/500s, file GitHub Support with:
   • repo: Tommaso20BW/Notizie_JR
   • run id: 30157630153
   • that cancel + force-cancel both 500, delete 403
   • that later runs of the same workflow succeed
     ask them to purge/cancel server-side
3. don't keep hammering cancel — won't fix a corrupted run record
4. for day-to-day: if new runs succeed, that zombie isn't blocking your pipeline

what it is not

• not your concurrency group stuck (you already proved that with successful newer runs)
• not fixed by re-pushing the workflow file

tl;dr — try gh run delete 30157630153 -R Tommaso20BW/Notizie_JR to clean it up. if github rejects the delete, it's an orphaned backend record and support has to clear it. your workflow itself looks fine.