actions / actions/runner

GitHub Actions workflow stuck in "queued" state and cannot be cancelled

Open
#3,872 9 comments 31 reactions 0 assignees View on GitHub

Nobody has claimed this yet.

bug
Dominant language
C#
Stars
6.3k
Forks
1.4k
Avg merge
1d 16h
Merged PRs (30d)
24

Description

Hello GitHub Support,

I'm encountering an issue where my workflow is stuck in the queued state for over an hour. This is a public repository, and I am not part of any GitHub organization.

Attempts to cancel the workflow fail with the error: Failed to cancel workflow.

This issue started recently — previously, workflows would run immediately under the same setup. I've verified:

  • GitHub Actions system status shows no reported incidents.
  • My YAML workflow file hasn't changed.
  • I'm using only the default GitHub-hosted runners.

Would you be able to investigate what's causing the blockage or help manually cancel the run?

Thanks in advance!

Contributor guide

No contributing guide indexed for this repository

First steps

  1. Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
  2. Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
  3. Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
  4. Open a pull request that references the issue number.

Research direction

The report names the workflow YAML and default GitHub-hosted runners, but no source file, test, or run identifier. Start by reviewing the workflow configuration and the queued run's cancellation behavior, then check the issue comments for additional evidence. Done means identifying why the run remains queued and confirming whether cancellation or execution works again.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
github-actions
Domain
ci-cd
Issue type
Bug
Difficulty
4/5
Estimated time
3-5 days
Activity status
Active
Clarity
Needs clarification
Newbie friendliness
35/100

Get new issues in your inbox

A short digest of beginner-friendly GitHub issues.