SyteLine report stuck in WAITING or no PDF: checklist

Short answer

A SyteLine report passes through a chain: the form submits a background task, TaskMan picks it up, the report renders, and a file is written to the output folder. When there's no PDF, one link in that chain is broken. Background Task History and Active Background Tasks tell you which link it is, usually within a few minutes. The usual culprits are a stopped service, a Report Options record pointing somewhere other than PDF, or an output folder the service account can't write to.

Free script: A one-page version of this checklist, plus read-only blocking and slow-report scripts, is in my free SyteLine SQL diagnostic scripts.

How a SyteLine report actually runs

It helps to know the chain before you start restarting things:

The form submits a task. When a user clicks Print or Preview, the report form creates a record in Active Background Tasks.
The task waits or goes straight to READY. A task with a schedule sits in WAITING until its time comes. An immediate task goes to READY.
TaskMan picks it up. The TaskMan Windows service watches the queue and runs anything marked READY.
The report renders. The report's stored procedure collects the data, and the report engine turns it into the output format.
The output is delivered. The file is written to the output folder, emailed, or sent to a printer, depending on Report Options.
History is written. A record lands in Background Task History, with an error message if something failed.

Every symptom below maps to one of these six steps.

Symptom → where to look

What you see	Broken link	Start at
Nothing in Background Task History at all	Step 1: the task never reached the queue	Check 1
Task sits in WAITING past its scheduled time	Step 2: scheduling service	Check 3
Task sits in READY and never moves	Step 3: TaskMan isn't picking up work	Check 3
Task stays RUNNING for hours	Step 4: the query or render is hung or very slow	Check 5
History says complete, but there's no PDF	Step 5: output settings or folder	Checks 4 and 6
History shows an error message	Steps 4–5	Read the message first

The checklist

Check 1: Is there a Background Task History record?

Open Background Task History and filter by the user and the report's task name.

No record at all: the task never made it into the queue. This is a form-side problem: the report form didn't submit, or it failed before submitting. Try the same report as another user and from a different client. If a customized report form is involved, check its events.
A record with an error message: read it in full before doing anything else. It usually names the stored procedure or the file path that failed.
A record that says it completed: go to Check 4.

Check 2: What status is the task in right now?

Open Active Background Tasks:

WAITING: the task is waiting for its schedule. If the scheduled time has passed, the service that releases scheduled work isn't doing its job (Check 3).
READY: the task is due to run right away. If it stays READY, TaskMan isn't picking up work (Check 3).
RUNNING: TaskMan has the task. If it has been running far longer than normal, go to Check 5.

You can delete a WAITING task from inside SyteLine, but not one that is READY or RUNNING. Don't kill a running task at the operating-system level unless you know what it's doing. A posting or update utility stopped halfway is far worse than a stuck report.

Check 3: Are the services running?

On the utility (TaskMan) server and the database server, confirm that:

TaskMan is running. If tasks sit in READY, this is almost always the cause.
The Infor Framework Event Service is running. Scheduled tasks stuck in WAITING usually mean this service has stopped.
SQL Server Agent is running on the database server. Background processing depends on it.

If one has stopped, start it, set its startup type to Automatic, and then look in the Windows Event Log for why it stopped. A service that stops after every server reboot or patch night will cause the same ticket again next month.

Check 4: What does Report Options say?

Open Report Options for that report, then for that user:

Output format: if it's set to Printer, SyteLine sends the job to the printer and no PDF file is created. That's correct behavior, but it confuses users who expected a PDF.
No Report Options record: the report falls back to the default set on the Intranets form, which is normally PDF.
Email settings: if the report is meant to be emailed, check the address and the SMTP settings on the Intranets/site setup. A failed email can look like a missing report.

Check 5: Is the report itself hanging?

If the task stays RUNNING:

Read the parameters the user entered before anything else. Open the task in Active Background Tasks or Background Task History and look at the ranges. A single mistyped range can make a routine task try to process far more than intended.
Copy the parameters the user entered and run the report's stored procedure directly in SQL Server Management Studio, against your test database.
If the procedure takes minutes there too, it's a data or query problem, not a TaskMan problem. See Why your SyteLine report is slow.
If the procedure is fast but the report still hangs, the problem is in rendering. Very large outputs, sub-reports, and images are the usual suspects.

From the field: on SyteLine 9, I saw a packing slip run entered with an order range of x1004 to x10005, one extra digit on the end order. The task kept running for days. Small reports kept running, so nothing looked wrong. Nobody noticed until invoicing stopped. (The full story and fix.) Since then, the first thing I check on any long-running task is its range parameters, not the server.

Check 6: Can TaskMan write to the output folder?

By default, report files are written under the TaskMan installation's report output folder, in a subfolder per user ID. Check:

Permissions: the account TaskMan runs as must have write access to that folder. Password changes or tightened folder permissions often break this without any warning.
Disk space on the drive holding the output folder.
Path changes: if the server was rebuilt or TaskMan moved, compare the configured path with where users are actually looking.

On SyteLine cloud (multi-tenant CloudSuite Industrial)

You can't restart services or browse server folders in multi-tenant cloud, so Checks 3 and 6 belong to Infor. Checks 1, 2, 4 and 5 still apply. Look in your report output files inside the application, and check Report Options for the output format. When you log a support case, include the task number and the exact history message.

Stop it happening again

Look at Active Background Tasks every morning for anything RUNNING longer than its normal run time. A task that has been running overnight is almost always a wrong parameter or a stuck query, and it's far cheaper to catch on day one than on day four.
Add a simple daily check: a scheduled one-row report that should always produce a PDF. If it doesn't appear, you know before users do.
Write down which account TaskMan runs as and which folders it needs. Most "it worked yesterday" cases come back to permissions or passwords.
After every Windows patch night, confirm the three services from Check 3 started.

FAQ

Where does SyteLine save report PDFs?

By default, PDFs go to the TaskMan report output folder in a subfolder named after the user ID. Report Options can send output to a printer or email instead.

Why is my scheduled SyteLine report stuck in WAITING?

Usually the service that releases scheduled tasks, the Infor Framework Event Service, has stopped. Start it and set it to start automatically.

Why does a SyteLine task stay in READY?

TaskMan isn't picking up work. Check that the TaskMan service is running on the utility server.

Can I delete a stuck background task?

You can delete a task in WAITING from Active Background Tasks. Tasks in READY or RUNNING can't be deleted from inside SyteLine.