Paused And Failed Flow Interviews
Paused and Failed Flow Interviews is a Setup page in Salesforce that lists every flow interview in the org that is currently paused or has failed.
Definition
Paused and Failed Flow Interviews is a Setup page in Salesforce that lists every flow interview in the org that is currently paused or has failed. A paused interview is a flow run that hit a Pause element and is waiting on a scheduled resume time or a user action. A failed interview is a run that stopped because an element threw an unhandled error. The page lets an administrator see both states in one place and act on them.
How the page works and when to check it
Where the page lives and what it shows
You reach the page from Setup. Type Paused and Failed Flow Interviews into the Quick Find box, then open the result. The list shows interviews in two states. Paused interviews are runs that reached a Pause element and are sitting in the time-based queue, waiting for a scheduled resume time or for a user to come back and continue. Failed interviews are runs that stopped on an error that no Fault path caught. Each row ties back to a flow, the running user, and a timestamp, so you can tell at a glance whether a given run is still waiting or whether it died earlier in the day. The page is read-and-act, not just read. From here an admin can open an interview to inspect it, resume a paused one, or delete an interview that is stuck or no longer needed. Treat it as the control room for any flow that does not finish in a single transaction. When someone reports that a flow seems to have vanished mid-process, this is the first place to look before opening the flow itself in Flow Builder.
Paused versus failed, and why the distinction matters
The two states on this page come from very different causes, and you handle them differently. A paused interview is healthy by design. The flow author placed a Pause element so the run waits, often for a scheduled resume hours or days later, or until a person returns to a screen flow. Seeing thousands of paused interviews is normal for a flow that pauses on a long schedule and runs often. The volume itself is not a problem. A failed interview is a symptom. The run hit an element that threw an error nothing caught, so it stopped and recorded a failure. Common causes include a missing required field on a record update, a governor limit, a null value passed to an element, or a permission gap for the running user. Failed interviews do not retry on their own. They sit on the page until you investigate the root cause in Flow Builder, fix the flow, and decide what to do with the records the failed run touched. The split between the two states tells you instantly whether you are looking at expected waiting or real breakage.
Resuming a paused interview
Most paused interviews resume on their own. A time-based pause fires when its scheduled resume time arrives, and a screen flow continues when the user returns. By default, users can resume their own paused interviews from the Paused Interviews component on the Home page. An admin can also open an interview from the Setup page and resume it directly when a run needs a manual nudge. There is a real gotcha with autolaunched flows that pause. When such a flow resumes after a time-based event, the running user must still have the permissions to run every element after the Pause. If a permission changed between the pause and the resume, the interview can fail at resume time. Salesforce shipped a release update, Make Paused Flow Interviews Resume in the Same Context with the Same User Access, to address this. With it active, the resumed run uses the same context and user access it had before pausing, which cuts down on resume-time failures. You can also build autolaunched flows to run in system context so they do not depend on the running user's profile.
Deleting stuck or unwanted interviews
Deletion is the other lever on this page. You delete an interview when a paused run is genuinely stuck, when a failed run is noise you have already accounted for, or when you are cleaning up before retiring a flow. To remove one, open the interview record from the list and choose Delete. For large cleanups, you can query and delete interview records in bulk with a data tool like Workbench, Data Loader, or SOQL rather than clicking through them one at a time. Deletion matters most when you try to delete a flow version. Salesforce blocks deleting a flow that still has paused or failed interviews referencing it, and the attempt can return an internal server error. The fix is to clear those interview references first, manually or in bulk, then delete the flow. Build this step into your retirement checklist so an old flow does not refuse to go away. Deleting an interview is permanent. The run does not continue and any work it had queued after the Pause never happens, so confirm the run is truly abandoned before you remove it.
Volume, limits, and keeping the page healthy
Paused interviews used to count against an org limit on paused and waiting flows. Salesforce removed that cap with the Have Unlimited Paused and Waiting Flows change in Spring 24, so you no longer hit a ceiling on how many interviews can wait at once. That is good for scale, but it also means nothing forces you to clean up, so the page can grow quietly if you ignore it. Healthy practice is to skim the page on a schedule, especially during the first weeks after a new flow goes live. A sudden jump in failed interviews is an early signal that a recent change broke something, often before users file tickets. A steadily climbing pile of paused interviews that should have resumed by now points to a schedule or a Pause condition that is not firing as expected. Set a habit of checking weekly during rollout and after any major release, then less often once a flow is stable. The page is most useful as a routine canary, not only as an emergency tool you remember after something has already gone wrong.
Where it fits with newer monitoring tools
The Paused and Failed Flow Interviews Setup page is the long-standing way to manage these runs, and it still works. Salesforce has been folding the same information into the Automation app in Lightning Experience, which gives you list views of flows, paused interviews, and failed interviews in one console-style workspace. Recent releases let you monitor all failed and paused flow interviews from that app, so larger teams often watch there instead of the Setup page. Both views read the same underlying interview records, so what you see is consistent between them. Pick the surface that fits your habit. The Setup page is quick when you already live in Setup and want to act on a single stuck run. The Automation app is better when you want saved list views, filtering, and a place to watch trends across many flows. Either way, the goal is the same. Catch failures early, resume or clean up paused runs, and keep the queue from turning into a graveyard of half-finished automation that no one is tracking.
Manage paused and failed interviews from Setup
Use the Paused and Failed Flow Interviews page to find a flow run that did not finish, then resume it or remove it. This walkthrough covers the day-to-day admin loop on the Setup page.
- Open the page
From Setup, type Paused and Failed Flow Interviews into the Quick Find box and open the result. You see one list holding both paused and failed interviews for the org.
- Read the state of each run
Identify whether a row is paused (waiting on a schedule or a user) or failed (stopped on an error). Note the related flow, the running user, and the timestamp to understand what happened.
- Resume a paused run
For a paused interview that needs a manual nudge, open it and resume it. Confirm the running user still has access to every element after the Pause, or the resume can fail.
- Delete a stuck or unwanted run
For an abandoned paused run or a failed run you have accounted for, open the record and choose Delete. Use Data Loader, Workbench, or SOQL for large cleanups.
- Fix the root cause in Flow Builder
For failures, open the flow in Flow Builder, find the failing element, add a Fault path or correct the logic, and activate the fix so future runs do not fail the same way.
Continues a paused interview from where it stopped; the run picks up after the Pause element.
Permanently removes an interview; the run does not continue and any queued post-Pause work never happens.
Lets end users resume their own paused interviews without an admin opening Setup.
An alternate Lightning workspace to monitor failed and paused interviews with saved, filterable list views.
- An autolaunched flow can fail at resume if the running user lost a permission needed after the Pause; activate the resume-with-same-access release update or run the flow in system context.
- You cannot delete a flow that still has paused or failed interviews; clear those interview references first, or the delete can return an internal server error.
- High paused-interview counts are normal for flows that pause on a long schedule and are not by themselves a sign of trouble.
- Deleting an interview is permanent and the run will not finish, so confirm it is truly abandoned before removing it.
Prefer this walkthrough as its own page? How to Paused And Failed Flow Interviews in Salesforce, step by step
Trust & references
Cross-checked against the following references.
- Monitoring and Managing Paused and Failed Flow InterviewsSalesforce
- Resume a Flow InterviewSalesforce
Straight from the source - Salesforce's reference material on Paused And Failed Flow Interviews.
- Paused Flow Interview ConsiderationsSalesforce
- Have Unlimited Paused and Waiting FlowsSalesforce
Hands-on resources to go deeper on Paused And Failed Flow Interviews.
About the Author
Dipojjal Chakrabarti is a B2C Solution Architect with 29 Salesforce certifications and over 13 years in the Salesforce ecosystem. He runs salesforcedictionary.com to help admins, developers, architects, and cert/interview candidates sharpen their fundamentals. More about Dipojjal.
Test your knowledge
Q1. What appears on the Paused And Failed Flow Interviews Setup page?
Q2. Why skim the Paused And Failed Flow Interviews page periodically, not only during emergencies?
Q3. Which action can an admin take on a failed interview from the Paused And Failed Flow Interviews page?
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