We have implemented a workflow designed to manage engineering changes. A change request / change order document (CR) is routed through the workflow along with references to the affected files (Inventor mostly), and approvals and additional info are collected. The affected files are pasted as references to the CR. As the CR's state is changed within the workflow, so are the states of the referenced files. My problem is that sometimes the referenced files will become "stuck" in a state, while the containing CR continues advancing through the workflow. As admin I have to advance the "stuck" files until they are again is in sync with the CR. Of course that action is undesirable because the proper approvals, dates, and data are not captured in the stuck file's card variables or the history record.

I have not been able to identify a probable cause. Does anyone have any ideas why the stuck-files condition occurs?

I figured out why the problem occurs. In the user group settings dialog, on the reference dialog tab there is a "do not mark reference files..." check box which was checked for one user group but not others. In the do transition dialog a user in that group would have to deliberately set the check box for each reference file. Sometimes she did not check every one.