Approval workflow has status “Rejected” when sent to approver

Question

I use the standard "Publishing approval" workflow on a publishing site with SharePoint 2013.

The issue is, that when an editor sends the item for approval to the content manager, the item has stated: "Rejected".

My first idea was that the editor tries to edit the item after starting the workflow - this is not the case.

What are other possible reasons for this behavior?

Answer 1

The task was completed with status "Rejected" but approver didn't complete the task?

It seems that other approvers rejected the task. Could you check workflow history to see who has rejected the task?

Answer 2

Permission issue? Contribute access does not grant "approve", just add/edit.
"Library Settings" -> "Versioning Settings" -> Require Content Approval for Submitted Items - if "Yes" then contributors can't "approve".