GitHub Actions workflow stuck in queued state - cancel and force-cancel fail (409)

[ghost]

🏷️ Discussion Type

Bug

💬 Feature/Topic Area

Other

Discussion Details

Hello GitHub Community,

I have a GitHub Actions scheduled workflow run that has been stuck in the queued state since October 7, 2026 (UTC).

Observed behavior:

• GitHub Actions displays the run as queued.
• The workflow run has 0 jobs.
• Clicking Cancel workflow returns "Failed to cancel workflow."
• Calling the GitHub Actions force-cancel REST API returns HTTP 409:
  Cannot cancel a workflow run that has not been queued yet.
• The run remains queued after refreshing.

Both affected workflows have already been manually disabled, but the older queued run remains.

Expected behavior:
The workflow run should be cancellable or transition to a terminal state.

Is this a known GitHub Actions issue? Is there a safe way to clear this stuck run without re-enabling the workflows or triggering new runs?

Thank you.

[github-actions[bot]]

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[nmloc]

The 409 is telling you what state the run is in: it was created but never actually entered the queue, so there is nothing for cancel or force-cancel to stop. That is why both the button and the API refuse it. A disabled workflow won't create new runs, so the leftover run is cosmetic, but you can't clear it with cancel.

What you can do:

1. Try deleting the run instead of cancelling it. GitHub's docs say a workflow run can be deleted "that has been completed, or is more than two weeks old" (Deleting a workflow run). Your run is from October 7, so the two-week rule kicks in around October 21. After that, the ... menu on the run should offer Delete workflow run, or from the CLI:

   gh run delete <run-id> --repo <owner>/<repo>

   or DELETE /repos/{owner}/{repo}/actions/runs/{run_id} (REST docs). It's worth trying the API once now as well; if it refuses, wait for the two-week mark.

2. Keep the workflows disabled until it is gone, so nothing new gets stuck behind it.

3. If you need it cleared before then (for example it blocks a concurrency group), open a ticket at https://support.github.com with the run URL and the exact 409 response. A run stuck before queueing can only be moved to a terminal state on GitHub's side.