Unable to Submit a Record for Approval – Inactive Record Owner Error

This error commonly occurs when the record owner's user account has been deactivated in Salesforce. Even if the Entry Criteria is met and the submitting user is listed as an Initial Submitter, an inactive record owner prevents the approval submission from completing successfully. The resolution is to transfer record ownership to an active user.

Steps to Resolve

1. Open the record that cannot be submitted for approval.
2. Verify that the Entry Criteria for the Approval Process is satisfied by reviewing the approval process configuration (see navigation steps in the Description above).
3. View the record owner's user account. To check if a user is active, go to Setup | Users | Users and search for the owner's name.
4. If the record owner's user account is inactive (for example, due to duplication and deactivation), transfer ownership of the record to an active user.
5. Once ownership is transferred to an active user, attempt to submit the record for approval again.

Additional Information

If duplicate user records exist in your org (an active and an inactive version of the same user), transfer ownership to the active user account to resolve this issue.