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[L]

I've got a lever set up that sometimes would be crucial to pull during ambush situations. I've tested it and dwarves will pull it just fine then, and it works as intended. However recently one of my trade caravans was ambushed and I set the lever to be pulled. I had plenty of idle dwarves, some with no labors enabled (I heard levers don't need a labor, is this true?) yet no one would pull this lever, they just defaulted to "No Job". There were no goblins close to it, they had no problem doing other jobs in the area, and I can't understand why they wouldn't just pull it. I checked the job orders and it was rather close to the bottom and set to "Inactive". Any ideas what I'm doing wrong?

[martinuzz]

-Did you get any messages saying: Urist McChicken cancels pull lever: interrupted by <insert ambusher race and name here>?
If so, your dwarves are scared away from the job due to spotting a nearby ambusher.

-Or, did you forbid your dwarves to go outside, and the lever is outside, or (part of) the only path to it passes through any outside tiles?

-Or, did you at any time press <P> in the lever's workshop menu, and set it to allow only 1 specific dwarf to operate it?

[L]

1. No job cancellations, job listed on the lever's task's was "Pull the Lever"

2. At first I had forbidden outside, but I changed those orders to see if that might help. But the lever itself is firmly inside with many paths only inside to get to it.

3. I did not, but should I try that?

Something that occured to me is that the lever is in a room technically designated an office. It worked in testing before in the same room, but is it possible that this is preventing it from being used now for some unknown reason?

[Albedo]

If so, I think it would truly be "for an unknown reason".

Some players lock a dwarf in their control room (which first assumes you have one) so they have NO excuse not to pull levers when told. Some even go so far as to make it permanent, dropping food and drink in to them. (And keeping them from ever being affected by losing friends in combat, since they have none.)

But in this instance... sounds like they're just being contrary. 

[L]

Double Post Update: I just went to the seasonal save for that season and tried the lever then and it worked as it had before. With nothing significantly different aside from the caravan and the ambush I'm chalking it up to an issue with the go outside orders, the move item to depot jobs (which didn't help to cancel, and doesn't explain the idle dwarfs entirely.), and the goblins scaring them without giving a warning. I imagine it was a combination of those three interacting in a non transparent fashion. I'll make a panic room, with a designated puller (prisoner), for next time I guess. thanks for your help martinuzz, and albedo i appreciate your replies.

[Albedo]

np, esp with odd situations like this.

You can also leave the room empty, and <a>ctivate a nearby dwarf, < s>tation them inside and then lock them there for the duration, if that suits you better.  Lose a little time in the walk there, but that dwarf is still productive meanwhile. (Altho', a little more creativity could give the gimp something to do while just sitting in there, maybe with some barreled goods so they are fast to drop down, and then he drops them down further? Meh, could be more trouble than it's worth - tho' that's never been an absolute "fail" condition for many DF players.)

[SquirrelWizard]

just for the record. Ordering dwarves to stay inside means for them to stay underground. This means if you have a building on the surface of your map, even if it is closed in on all four sides with a roof its still forbidin to go up there when a stay inside order is given.