GitHub Actions jobs stuck at “Waiting for a runner to pick up this job” (personal account)

[AzraelGodKing]

Why are you starting this discussion?

Question

What GitHub Actions topic or product is this about?

Misc

Discussion Details

Account: AzraelGodKing (personal)

Repos with the issue:

AzraelGodKing/PythonProject1

AzraelGodKing/Save0

Behavior:

Actions are enabled at both the account and repo levels.

Billing shows 0 / 2000 GitHub Actions minutes used.

In PythonProject1, .github/workflows/ping.yml and ci.yml are on the default branch (main).

In Save0, .github/workflows/main.yml is on the default branch (master).

All workflows use standard GitHub-hosted runners (runs-on: ubuntu-latest and runs-on: windows-latest) with minimal jobs (e.g. a single echo step).

When I trigger a run (via workflow_dispatch or a push), the job log shows:
Requested labels: ubuntu-latest or windows-latest
Job defined at: /.github/workflows/.yml@refs/heads/
Waiting for a runner to pick up this job...
and the job never progresses beyond that state, even after many minutes.

[TanishqCh07]

It looks like your workflows are configured correctly, so the issue is likely not with your YAML files or runner labels. When jobs stay stuck on “Waiting for a runner to pick up this job…” even though GitHub-hosted runners are available, it usually points to an account-level or platform-level block. A few things you can try/check:

1. Check if your account was flagged or requires verification
   Sometimes Actions are silently paused until you complete phone/email verification or resolve any account restrictions.

2. Make sure Actions are enabled specifically for public/private repos
   Go to:
   Settings → Actions → General
   and confirm “Allow all actions and reusable workflows” is enabled.

3. Try toggling Actions off and on again at both account and repo level
   This can refresh stuck configurations.

4. Check if you recently changed your username
   Username changes sometimes break runner permissions temporarily.

5. Look at GitHub Status
   Rarely, GitHub-hosted runners have outages that cause exactly this behavior.

If none of these help, you should open a ticket with GitHub Support (and provide your repo names + workflow file paths), because this behavior almost always indicates something GitHub-side rather than a workflow issue.

Hope this helps!

[AzraelGodKing]

thank you! looks like toggling actions is all I neede.

[Vusoni]

Hey, can you accept this answer?

[cptthura-alt]

A first-level heading