Crazy Sharepoint Designer 2013 workflow Email Issue

Question

We have sharepoint 2013 on prem environment , with workflow manager configured successfully. Sharepoint setup is on Domain1. users from both domain1 and domain2 can access sites succefully. we have user profile configured. So users from both domain1 and 2 and imported. Difference is Domain1 users doesnt have email field populated so Work email property is empty for all domain1 imported users. Domain2 is fine and we have work email for them populated

We have simple worklow that runs on item creation and sends an email to the email ID entered in Title field. Now , below are the findings related to when email works and when it doesnt.

1. Sharepoint 2013 platform workflow

   1. user@domain1.com doesnt work.
   2. user@domain2.com works
   3. user@gmail.com doesnt work.

This is as expected, as 2013 based workflow tries to resolve the user from email id entered.

So we deicded to go with 2010 platform based workflow. belwo are the finidngs.

2. Sharepoint 2010 platform workflwo on 2013 on prem

   1. user@domain1.com doesnt work
   2. user@domain2.com works.
   3. user@gmail.com works
   4. user@anypersonalid.com works.

I really do not understand why 2.1 doesnt work while 2.3 and 2.4 works.

AFAIK sharepoint 2010 doesnt care what email id is, which is validated , as it sends an email to personal ids as well. However why it doesnt work with @domai1.com is really a mystery. (Make sure the e-mail has a valid recipient )

As soon as we go to user profile and manually enter work email field for that user from domain1, 2010 workflow send email after waiting for some time.

I dont understadn why personal id works but domain1 ids do not. any idea?

We cant really populate all user emails manually in user profiles.

Answer 1

User Profile is the primary source of information for your native users. With Domain 2 it really depends on the nature of trust between domains. It probably treats it all as external. With your native domain ie. Domain1 SP first checks in the User Profile Service so without e-mail it doesn't work. But you don't need to do it manually. I am sure you must have some kind of DB with userName-eMail. You can export it and use PowerShell script to import to user profiles.