Help witth Actions/Workflows getting stuck

[nf12pro]

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My murder mistery website repository has 2 workflows/actions queued for more than an hour with high speed wifi. I have tried cancelling but it failes. I ran REST API manually to cancel it and failed, proceded to try to delete it from the REST API yet failed. These are the links to my repo: https://github.com/nf12pro/A-Murder-Mystery-In-a-Dark-Room. My 2 actions that are stuck on queued.

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[nf12pro]

I spent multiple hours trying to research and most people just told me to use the RESt API which doesn't work...

[pouriya73]

@nf12pro This is not a local network or Wi-Fi issue. GitHub Actions runners are fully server-side, and “queued” jobs mean no runner is being assigned, not that your connection is slow.

• GitHub-hosted runner congestion (very common; queues can stall for hours).

• Repository or account concurrency limits reached.

• A stuck runner allocation caused by a previous failed or cancelled job.

• Temporary GitHub Actions service degradation.

[N0Algorithm]

Check GitHub Status: On occasion, the Actions queues experience delays because of issues with the GitHub service. Go to https://www.githubstatus.com/ and check for “Actions” incidents.
Cancel via UI: Click through Actions → [workflow] → All runs, select the run that is stuck, and attempt to Cancel workflow.
Use the REST API with caution: You have already attempted the cancellation/deletion via API. Double-check that you are using the right endpoint:
Cancel: POST /repos/{owner}/{repo}/actions/runs/{run_id}/cancel
Delete: DELETE /repos/{owner}/{repo}/actions/runs/{run_id}
If this method still doesn’t work, it is probably a server-side problem.

[im-coderavi]

This is a known GitHub Actions runner-side issue, not your internet or repo.

On GitHub, workflows can get stuck in “queued” when:

GitHub-hosted runners are temporarily unavailable or overloaded

A runner reservation fails internally

A previous workflow deadlocks the queue

That’s why Cancel, REST API cancel, and delete attempts fail — the job never actually starts, so GitHub can’t release it.

What you can do (effective fixes):

Disable Actions temporarily

Repo → Settings → Actions → Disable

Wait 2–5 minutes

Re-enable Actions

Push a trivial commit

Example: edit README → commit → push
This often forces GitHub to refresh the queue.

Check GitHub Actions status

If runners are degraded, you must wait (nothing you can fix locally).

Last resort

The stuck jobs usually auto-clear within a few hours.

They do not block future workflows permanently.

What will not work:

Cancelling via UI repeatedly

REST API delete/cancel

Faster internet

Rerunning the same workflow without a new event

Important: This is not a problem with your murder mystery website or workflow YAML.

[github-actions[bot]]

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