Unable to modify/close incidents

[northben]

Before I discovered the ServiceNow REST interface and documentation on the wiki, I created some incidents in ServiceNow through a script that mimicked the actual HTTP calls that my web browser makes when I create an incident directly in ServiceNow.

However, now I am not able to modify or close the incidents that I created through my script. Additionally, the incident_state for these "bad" incidents is "Open" whereas normal incidents are "Work In Progress". I have attempted to identify any discrepancies between the normal/good vs. "bad" incidents, but I am stuck. When I try to modify one of the fields that are different (e.g. time_worked), my changes are not saved when I modify the "bad" incident in my browser. The "bad" incidents also do not have buttons to resolve or close incidents, but normal incidents do.

Does anyone have a suggestion for how I can fix these incidents?

[Mark Stanger]

Which field is being updated?   'incident_state' or 'state'?   Depending on your configuration, setting a value in either one could be causing the record to be locked down.   'incident_state' is the legacy field, but 'state' is probably what you should standardize on across all tasks going forward.   The conditions in your UI actions and ACLs should point to one or the other.

[northben]

As far as I can tell, we only ever use the incident_state field. It's displayed in the UI as "Status". I am trying to change both through the REST API and neither field is changed - but I can change other fields through the API, such as u_first_name (Submitter's first name).

[Mark Stanger]

You may need to contact SN support so that someone can look at your system then.   The root cause seems to be that some field value has been set incorrectly.   It's hard to say exactly what has happened without having access to view your system.

[northben]

Mark,

I am not sure what was the problem with those incidents, but thanks to your help, I learned a lot about ServiceNow and how to troubleshoot problems in the future. Andrii's suggestion to use a fix script turned out to work for changing the status of the bad incidents. And your suggestions were extremely helpful to understand the workflow of tickets through the system. I can't tell you how much I appreciate your help!