KB-1130 "The user [xxxxx] does not have sufficient privileges to perform the requested action because they are not in any role" error thrown in different scenarios

Symptoms

At least one user cannot login, or unattended activities running as the user will fail, or you are unable to reset a user's password.

The application server log will show the following error:

ERROR com.appiancorp.ap2.PortalActionsUtil - Could not initialize group navigation information for page
PrivilegeException[null=>null]: Insufficient permission
 ...
ERROR com.appiancorp.ap2.PortalAction - Couldn't get model information for requested dashboard
PrivilegeException[null=>null]: Insufficient permission
...
The user [username] does not have sufficient privileges to perform the requested action because they are not in any role. (APNX-1-4188-001)

Cause

The following are possible causes for this issue:

1. The user is deactivated before an upgrade and reactivated after the upgrade. This means that group membership needs to be refreshed.
2. The user is not actually part of any role in the system (Application Users).
3. The process assignment is being overridden by the swim lane settings, potentially causing an unintended user to start the process or run particular nodes in the process.

Action

1. To refresh the group membership, perform the following:
   1. Add or remove that user to or from any group.
   2. Have that user log out and log back in to Appian.
2. Permanently add that user to the Application Users group if they are a basic user or the Designers group if they are a designer/administrator.
3. If you believe there is a discrepancy between the user that the server log mentions and the user that the process model or node is intended to run as, check to see if the process model is contained in a swim lane. Swim lane assignment takes precedence and applies to all nodes within a process model unless the Override lane assignment for this node option is selected for a particular node. It is possible that the process or a node is configured to run as a particular user, but the assignment is being "overridden" by the assignment option in the swim lane.

Affected Versions

This article applies to all versions of Appian.