The product group released the November 2025 Cumulative Update for SharePoint Workflow Manager.
This CU consists of a fix for SharePoint Workflow Manager and the SharePoint Workflow Manager client components which need to match SharePoint Workflow Manager.
The KB article for November 2025 CU will be available at the following Location in a couple of hours:
- KB 5002799 – November 2025 Update for SharePoint Workflow Manager
The download for November 2025 CU is available through the following link:
- Download November 2025 Update for SharePoint Workflow Manager
- Download SharePoint Workflow Manager Client version 16.019127.20336
This CU requires SharePoint Workflow Manager Client version 16.019127.20336 to be installed
- on all servers in the Workflow Manager farm AND
- on all servers in the SharePoint Server farm
For detailed download and installation instructions see the KB article above.
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Hi, Stefan,
for new client, should I uninstalled oldclinet first, or can upgrade directly in all servers?
thanks!
Jing
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Hi Jing,
please use the detailed step-by-step instructions in the KB article.
In short: yes, you need to uninstall the current client components and then install the new ones.
The client components cannot be upgraded.
Cheers,
Stefan
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Hi Stefan,
Thanks for your work keeping us up to date – it’s very much appreciated! Just wondering if it is critical that the patch version of Sharepoint Subscription Edition matches the patch version of Sharepoint workflow manager? As in if I apply the November CU for SPSE do I also need to patch Workflow manager to the Number CU?
Thanks again!
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Hi Troy,
not really. A minimum of August 2025 CU for SPWFM is technically required.
But August 2025 CU for SPWFM has a couple of critical issues which are resolved in November 2025 CU for SPWFM. This is the main reason that this requirement was added to the KB article.
But if there are SPWFM problems, Support might require November 2025 CU for SPWFM to be installed as it is much more stable than August and October CU.
Cheers,
Stefan
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Hi Stefan,
Do SPWFM patches function like SharePoint patches, in that each new patch replaces the previous ones, or do we need to apply all prior patches before installing the November patch? For instance, we have the August patches for SPWFM installed—can we directly install the November patch, or must we apply the September and October SPWFM patches first?
Thanks.
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Hi Umr,
for the SPWFM server patches: they are cumulative and you only have to apply the most recent.
For the SPWFM client: these a full installers. You need to uninstall the old one and then install the latest.
Cheers,
Stefan
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Goo evening. Is anyone else having issues after installing the SPWFM updates for Server 2016? The workflows won’t start. The previous working patch was for September. I skipped October due to the issues others were having. I haven’t looked at the logs yet. All the other patches are up-to-date (SP 2016, Office, SQL).
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Never mind. I had 1 of the collections in read-only mode (although I was testing the other one). Once I took it out, the workflow started OK.
God bless you all and have a Happy Thanksgiving!!
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Hi Stefan,
Hope you are doing Great 🙂
In the KB article, the installation steps for an existing farm in the November SharePoint Workflow Manager client still show the old client version, i.e., Install the SPWFM Client (16.0.19127.20262). However, in the steps for installing on a new farm, it shows a newer client version — Install the SPWFM Client (16.0.19127.20336).
Is this a typo, or do we need to install the newer version? I checked older patch installation KB articles, and in those, both the existing farm and new farm steps used the same client version.
Thanks.
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Hi Chandu,
yes – this seems to be a typo. As you can see above it is clearly written that the new client version is required.
I will ping the KB article writer to update the article.
Cheers,
Stefan
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Hi Chandu, the articles has been updated.
Thanks for your helpful feedback!
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Hi,
This November CU update is still not stable.
It was already a known issue with the previous WFM CU update that there was a problem after the update. https://blog.stefan-gossner.com/2025/10/14/resolved-trending-issue-classic-workflow-manager-workflows-fail-after-september-2025-cu-for-sharepoint/
At the time, I managed to restore everything in our test environment using a farm restore, and planned to wait with the production update until a stable cu update.
Yesterday evening I went ahead and started the update in production, and after the upgrade nothing worked again :-(.
The logs were full of these errors:
Service Bus exception swallowed at location ServiceBusNamespaceListener.GetSessionAndStateWithRetryAsyncResult.HandleException. Microsoft.ServiceBus.Messaging.MessagingCommunicationException: Error during communication with Service Bus. Check the connection information, then retry.
—> System.ServiceModel.CommunicationObjectFaultedException: Internal Server Error: The server did not provide a meaningful reply; this might be caused by a premature session shutdown.
TrackingId: urn:uuid:2eab927e-9749-41f9-a032-b927bfb45ee7, Timestamp: 27/11/2025 18:23:19
So I quickly deleted the two management databases and started a farm restore. Now everything is working again.
PS: Our production environment was a WFM farm running the original version from when WFM was first released.
Regards,
Johan
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Hi,
We just installed the october CU of SharePoint Subscription with november CU of SharePoint Workflow Manager and the workflow platform is broken even if it seems working. Get-SBFarmStatus and Get-WFFarmStatus are up and running, Workflow Service Status is connected, i can publish workflow 2013, i can start and terminate workflow but all the tasks inside the workflow are not executed. I always receive this error => Retrying last request. Next attempt scheduled after 12/3/2025 2:46 PM. Details of last request: HTTP Forbidden to https://……/_api/web/lists(guid’3d43213d-5866-447c-b51d-af679f2b70d7′) Correlation Id: c7937442-5437-7e92-b330-6e53eb871d41
I don’t find any solution and it becomes really a mess to upgrade the platform.
Regards,
Angelo
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Hi Angelo,
I would suggest to open a ticket to get this analyzed.
Cheers,
Stefan
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Hello Stefan,
a ticket has already been created. But can you be assigned to this ticket ?
Regards,
Angelo
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Hi Angelo, sorry – I am on business travel for the next 2 weeks.
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hi Stefan
My SP-WFM farm DO NOT have August 2025 or any later KBs installed
Can I install November 2025 KBs directly as the KBs should be cumulative?
Will that upgrade show the SP 2013 workflow issues happened post-Sep 2025 of SP?
https://blog.stefan-gossner.com/2025/09/25/summary-and-status-of-issues-identified-with-september-2025-cu-for-sharepoint/
Regards
Ramen
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Hi Ramen,
yes – you can install it.
Which SP2013 workflow issue do you mean?
Cheers,
Stefan
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This one for example, for which you wrote a PS script
https://blog.stefan-gossner.com/2025/08/21/trending-issue-system-memory-dll-missing-after-installing-august-2025-cu-for-sharepoint-workflow-manager/
In any case, are the issues with SP Sep 2025 fixed now with latest SP CU i.e. December 2025 CU?
https://blog.stefan-gossner.com/2025/09/25/summary-and-status-of-issues-identified-with-september-2025-cu-for-sharepoint/
Thanks
Ramen
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Hi Ramen,
as you can see in the article this issue was fixed in October 2025 CU for SPWFM.
The open issues listed in the article are still open. Current plan is to release fixes in February 2025 CU.
Cheers,
Stefan
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Ok thanks Stefan
One last question:
If I have to upgrade both SharePoint and Workflow, I guess I should do the workflow first and then SharePoint, right?
First – install SP-WFM November 2025 CU, restart, upgrade
Second – install SP-2016 December 2025 CU, restart, upgrade
Regards
Ramen
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Hi Ramen,
if SPWFM is on a patch level from before August CU, then yes.
If you have SPWFM August CU or later installed, then the sequence does not matter.
Be aware that it is really important to uninstall the SPWFM client components on all SharePoint and SPWFM server and install the November version of SPWFM client.
Cheers,
Stefan
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@Stefan
We’ve configured a new SPSE farm and installed the latest Workflow Manager components. While the setup ultimately completed (after addressing some AppFabric failures), we’re seeing instability with the Workflow Service Backend and workflows are not starting.
Environment & Versions
SharePoint Workflow Manager Client:
16.0.19127.20336SharePoint Workflow Manager:
16.0.19127.20336Current Symptoms
Proxy: Shows Connected
Other services: Show Running
New workflows (test): Status is Not Started
Workflow Service Backend: Stops shortly after being started
Farm Status Output
Get-WFFarmStatusHostName ServiceName ServiceStatus
-------- ----------- -------------
ServerNameXXX.SS.ads.XX.com WorkflowServiceBackend Stopped
ServerNameXXX.SS.ads.XX.com WorkflowServiceFrontEnd Running
Artifacts path
C:\Program Files\Workflow Manager\1.0\Workflow\Artifacts - All DLLs shows date modified as on 2002 year
Request
Could you please advise on next steps to stabilize the WorkflowServiceBackend and get workflows to start properly? If helpful, I can share relevant logs (Workflow Manager, Service Bus, AppFabric) and recent event viewer entries.
Thanks,
Prashant
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Hi Prashant,
this requires deeper analysis. Please open a ticket with Microsoft support to ensure this is properly investigated.
Cheers,
Stefan
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hello Stefan,
Could you please share a basic troubleshooting checklist to help us confirm that our configuration is correct on our side?
We’re observing the following status:
HostName ServiceName ServiceStatus
ServerNameXXX.SS.ads.XX.com WorkflowServiceBackend Stopped
Your guidance or recommendations would be highly appreciated.
Thank you,
Prashant
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Hi Stefan,
As suggested earlier, we raised a Microsoft support case and have been actively working with them for more than a month. However, the issue still persists.
The latest response we received from Microsoft was quite concerning. They mentioned that the requested approach cannot be implemented and shared only the below options. Given the effort and time already spent, this outcome is unexpected.
Could you please review Microsoft’s response below and confirm whether this is indeed the correct and final position? We would really appreciate your guidance on how we should proceed from here.
I sent detailed information in Contact the Blog Author, Kindly review and let me know what needs to be done.
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Thanks Stefan
My production farm is upgraded successfully. I did SP-WFM November 2025 first and then SP 2016 December 2025 CU.
Question:
Is November 2025 the latest SP-WFM CU ?
If I upgrade SP 2016 farm to January 2026, I won’t have to do any SP-WFM upgrade?
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Hi Ramen,
yes, November 2025 CU is the most recent for SPWFM
Correct – no need to touch SPWFM if the SPWFM is already on November 2025 CU.
Cheers,
Stefan
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Hi Stefan.
After installed SP2019 Sept. 2025 Security patches are successful, I removed the workflow manager and workflow manager client from SP farm, so I could install Dec. 2025 Cumulative Update Security patches, after that I work on Nov. 2025 release workflow manager, it can’t install it, could you let me know what the baseline version of workflow manager, that I should be work on…. then we can work on latest release for the workflow manager.
Thanks,
YJin
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Hi Yjin,
you need to install the RTM version of SharePoint Workflow Manager.
This it he required baseline for November 2025 CU for SPWFM.
Cheers,
Stefan
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Hi Stephan,
there are my wf manager and client versions.
should wf client be uninstalled in order to install the new and then apply the pattch?
DisplayName DisplayVersion
———– ————–
Workflow Manager 1.0 2.0.40131.0
Workflow Manager Client 1.0 2.1.10607.2
Kind reagrds,
George stylianou
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Hi George,
based on the version numbers you are using classic Microsoft Workflow Manager and not SharePoint Workflow Manager manager.
Here an upgrade from classic WFM to SharePoint WFM is required and not just a patch installation as classic WFM and SharePoint WFM are different products.
See here for details:
https://blog.stefan-gossner.com/2023/03/14/new-documentation-sharepoint-workflow-manager-installation-and-configuration/
https://blog.stefan-gossner.com/2023/03/24/migrating-workflow-manager-to-sharepoint-workflow-manager-on-new-hardware/
Cheers,
Stefan
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Hello Stefan;
Planning to patch SharePoint SE with February 2026 CU on upcoming monday; and this SPWFM CU is a prerequisite;
I’ve applied this patch today; everything seems to be okay;
I would like to ask for a clarification regarding the config wizard and the database schema upgrade;
When i open the config wizard it shows the version i’ve installed : 16.0.19127.20336;
But when i call the service endpoint on both the scopes registered into SharePoint farms (several farms share the same spwfm farm); xml returns me the old version :
ActivityAssemblyVersion_Microsoft.SharePoint.WorkflowServices.Activities
16.0.18526.20508
;
digging into [WFManagementDB][StoreVersionTable] it shows aswell the old version and lastUpdated shows last time i have been upgrading spwfm;
it’s like nothing happened with config wizard :
[Progress] [4/10/2026 12:22:15 PM]: Reading WF upgrade policy file.
[Verbose] [4/10/2026 12:22:15 PM]: Validating Infra DB upgrade policy.
[Verbose] [4/10/2026 12:22:15 PM]: Skipping Infra Management DB upgrade because the current version is already the target version or above.
[Progress] [4/10/2026 12:22:15 PM]: Validating current DB versions against versions specified in the upgrade policy file.
[Verbose] [4/10/2026 12:22:15 PM]: Reading current DB versions.
[Verbose] [4/10/2026 12:22:15 PM]: Validating DB upgrade script files specified in the upgrade policy file exist.
[Verbose] [4/10/2026 12:22:15 PM]: Validating Service Bus version.
[Verbose] [4/10/2026 12:22:15 PM]: Skipping InstanceManagement DB upgrade because the current version is already the target version or above.
[Verbose] [4/10/2026 12:22:15 PM]: Skipping ResourceManagement DB upgrade because the current version is already the target version or above.
[Info] [4/10/2026 12:22:15 PM]: Processing completed
Question is :
Is it okay with this; like this CU doesn’t have to upgrade database schema or something like that;
or is it like CU haven’t been correctly applied ?
I’ve respected the steps in order; (client uninstall/install on all sp servers + spwfm server; cu applied on spwfm server; reboot; config wizard)
Could it be possible to indicate on KB if schema are upgraded or not?
it is very confusing and hard to ensure to customers that spwfm farm is correctly upgraded with those limbos
Best regards, Marc
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Hi Marc,
I do not have a SPWFM server running on this CU right now and don’t have the time to test it.
But I checked the fixes included in the fixes between 18526.20508 and 19127.20336 and they only included fixes in code and not fixes or updates to the database schema.
That means the db schema should not require an update.
If you need a definitive answer my suggestion would be to open a support case with Microsoft.
Cheers,
Stefan
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Thanks for the time you took to answer me Stefan;
It is clear enough for me and makes total sense since databases schema are not upgraded by this CU; just wished to make sure cause I’m writing process documentation regarding this type of operation today;
I will check the next time I will apply an SPWFM CU; if schema gets upgraded
Best regards, Marc