Solved: Approvals not sending Email

stephenJames · ‎09-09-2019

Hello,

I have created a simple flow to require Approval when a new item is created in a sharepoint list. This issue i am having is that when a new item is created in the SP List an approval email is not being sent. I see that pending approval under the Approvals link in Flow, but no email comes through regarding the approval.

I checked with our IT support regarding the missing emails and was responded with

" I was able to do a message trace and it doesn’t look like any emails were sent to you from this email address. Other agencies are receiving these emails (with details if undeliverable). "

So as far as i can tell Flow isnt sending the emails out.

Does anyone know if there is a setting or option that needs to be turned on in flow or something to allow these emails to be sent through.

Thanks

stephenJames · ‎11-04-2019

So with no information our approval emails are now being received. No changes were made on our end and the flows stayed the same.

I believe that whatever fixed the issue was done by our Tenant Administrators, but unfortunately we wont know what they changed or fixed.

View solution in original post

Pstork1 · ‎09-09-2019

There is a setting that will prevent emails from being sent if turned off. In your Approval under advanced settings make sure that Enable Notifications is set to Yes. If it is set to No then the Approval will only be sent to the panel and no email copy will be sent.

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stephenJames · ‎09-09-2019

Thanks for your response.

I checked this setting and can see that it is set to Enable Notifications

Pstork1 · ‎09-09-2019

A couple other things to try

1) Check in the Flow Runs and make sure that the settings used in the action are accurate. (For example that the approvers are a semicolon delimited string and not a comma delimited string.)

2) Check your Spam filter and your Junk folder in your mailbox. I've seen these approvals get sent to junk if the address isn't whitelisted.

3) Temporarily add a Send Email action just in front of the Approval action which is also set to your email. See if that email comes through.

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stephenJames · ‎09-09-2019

Hi @Pstork1

1) Ive checked the flow actions in the Approvals action and dont see anything wrong. Heres a screen shot

2) Ive checked the spam filter in Outlook and it is set to No Automatic Filtering. I also added maccount@microsoft.com to the Safe Recipients and Safe Senders List. From the tests i have run no emails for the approvals has gone into the spam / junk folder.

3) I added the send an email (V2) just before the Approval. When running the tests i do recieve those emails, but still no Approval emails.

As an added few tests, i changed the approval email address to my personal email, but that failed as it requires a user within the organization. I also changed the approval type from "Approve/Reject - First to respond" to "Approve/Reject - Everyone must approve" but that didnt make any difference.

Additionally i changed the approval type out for the Custom Responses aswell as deleting and readding the original approval action and approval type. All had no effect.

I think i did forget to mention that the approvals do show up under the Approvals link in flow, and i am able to approve and reject from there.

Pstork1 · ‎09-09-2019

It looks from the screenshot like you are just typing in the approver's email. When you do that it should show a typical People Picker dropdown. You should pick the email from there. What will show in the blank is the display name for the user rather than the email address. That may be interferring with it send out the actual email

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stephenJames · ‎09-09-2019

@Pstork1 wrote:
It looks from the screenshot like you are just typing in the approver's email. When you do that it should show a typical People Picker dropdown. You should pick the email from there. What will show in the blank is the display name for the user rather than the email address. That may be interferring with it send out the actual email

It appears that it does do as you mentioned when entering the users name, but changes on reloading the flow.

When this is selected is shows the following

Saving the flow and navigating away from the page and back then shows the following.

Pstork1 · ‎09-09-2019

Understood, just wanted to make sure it was entered correctly and it is.

I'm honestly not sure what is happening in your environment. We've checked about everything I can think of.

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stephenJames · ‎09-10-2019

@Pstork1 wrote:
Understood, just wanted to make sure it was entered correctly and it is.

I'm honestly not sure what is happening in your environment. We've checked about everything I can think of.

Thanks for your suggestions and help. I am guessing it might be an admin setting or something. I will have to raise a ticket with our tenant administrators and see if they can look into it on there end.

KMac1980 · ‎09-10-2019

@stephenJames You org may be geoblocking the emails. This happened to us! We were getting some approval emails but not all of them. we did a message trace and we could not find anything either. It was coming from a datacenter outside of the US and we were blocking it and that is why we were not getting them. You may have to contact Microsoft, they look at the logs and see where it is coming from and why you aren't getting it. Your org may need to whitellist certain IP ranges.

stephenJames · ‎09-17-2019

@KMac1980 wrote:
@stephenJames You org may be geoblocking the emails. This happened to us! We were getting some approval emails but not all of them. we did a message trace and we could not find anything either. It was coming from a datacenter outside of the US and we were blocking it and that is why we were not getting them. You may have to contact Microsoft, they look at the logs and see where it is coming from and why you aren't getting it. Your org may need to whitellist certain IP ranges.

Thanks for the information @KMac1980 . We are currently working with our tenant administrator to determine the cause and hopefully a resolution. From the information we have gathered already, some agencies under our tenant are getting these approval emails without issue, whereas our agency isnt recieving any of them.

Once i get some more information i will update this post just incase it helps someone else out.

stephenJames · ‎11-04-2019

So with no information our approval emails are now being received. No changes were made on our end and the flows stayed the same.

I believe that whatever fixed the issue was done by our Tenant Administrators, but unfortunately we wont know what they changed or fixed.

juresti · ‎03-18-2020

I was just having this same issue where the approval was not sending me an email but it was sending it to other users.

The solution for me was to delete the connection, not the flow action, but the connection from my list.

Then I added the connection again and it started sending me emails.

Microsoft from time to time will make updates that break your flow steps or the connection themselves, or they just freeze, or encounter a bug.

This is all running in a microsoft OS computer after all, things have to get "reinstalled" or "reconfigured".

I would also try logging out and in and deleting the action and adding it back.

Sometimes it also seems to lock you in the session and not process any changes in the flows.

drewc · ‎07-21-2020

Thanks Juresti...your solution seem to be what solved this issue for me

Anonymous · ‎02-02-2021

I'm having the same problem; there was a MS update this week 2/2/2021 and my approval flow is not generating an email now. It was prior to the update.

mijonnat · ‎02-02-2021

I'm also having the same problem. Removed and re-established the 'Approval' connector but it's still not working

Tdube94 · ‎02-03-2021

Here in Australia as well not receiving approval emails. Have gone through all the troubleshooting mentioned above

Pstork1 · ‎02-03-2021

This is a relatively old thread. If you are having issues with Approval emails definitely check all the suggestions here. But also either start a new thread or open a support ticket with Microsoft. Very few people will see your reply on this thread.

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Sytze · ‎07-01-2021

Thanks @Pstork1 , your answer worked!

Smitsky34 · ‎09-19-2022

I'm having the same issue, the approval is in my received approvals in PowerAutomate.

I've added an email notification prior to and after the approval step.

I've deleted the approval connection and recreated it.

I've checked the mail trace in exchange and I don't see the email for the approval. I DO see the email before and after the approval step, but still no approval email.

Both accounts; the approval connection and the receiving account have an E3 license and Outlook.

This is the first FLOW I've created in this tenant.