Error: Http request failed: the content was not a valid JSON. Error while parsing JSON: 'Unexpected character encountered while parsing value: R. Path '', line 0, position 0.'

[E_S]

I am trying to write a flow and I get this error:

Http request failed: the content was not a valid JSON. Error while parsing JSON: 'Unexpected character encountered while parsing value: R. Path '', line 0, position 0.'

The flow it's really simple, variables and an execute query.

I am trying to get texts from power app and use them to modify a string variable in power automate. Then I use the modified string variable as a query. 

I start with a trigger from power apps and I specify what I want to save as a variable and use in power automate:

Then I have a variable to save my query as a string and I use the previous variable to modify it (I find it in the required fields). 

Here it seems that everything works, but I do not understand what  is "Impostavariabile_valore". 

The error appears in the last step, when I try to execute the query

Can you give me some advice? 

[DEV_SCASSIANO]

**bleep**, I occur the same error!

[David_Pezzoli · Accepted solution]

I think it is a generic flow error:

Try to paste in the correct format the query directly into the action: "Esegui una query SQL"

In this way, you might get the exact new error of your query. 

Here is another solution using Try/Catch in order to detect a specific error:

https://powerusers.microsoft.com/t5/General-Power-Automate/Error-while-parsing-JSON-Unexpected-chara...

[David_Pezzoli]

Try to using correct OData format, as example for SQL Sever Get Rows filter query:

ERROR: colRowId eq QR000001

OK: colRowId eq 'QR00001' 

the second will be accepted because you explain with quotes '' it is a string

[jeffMazUr]

Friends,
In my case, it worked putting the name of the O'DATA Filter column between quotation marks - because it has a graphic accent (pt-br) and spaces - simple as well as the value you want to compare.
Ex.:
'N_x00fa_merodes_x00e9_rie' eq '0ARYBJEM30001W'

Remembering: You must inform the column name as it appears when using the field in an expression.

[binki-dcx]

I got this same exact error on a flow which normally works fine. If I understand correctly, the remote endpoint is claiming that the input the flow provided is malformed. There is no way for us to debug this—it requires Microsoft to look into it.

It could be that some logging in the flow stuff gets written to the request. Or the flow request logic is written in a way which is not threadsafe so that an HTTP header shows up in the middle of the request body.

Here’s my error in a request to Outlook’s Reply to Email (V3):

Http request failed: the content was not a valid JSON. Error while parsing JSON: 'Unexpected character encountered while parsing value: R. Path '', line 0, position 0.'

[nerfherder]

@binki-dcx I've gotten that exact error 4 separate times today, on 4 separate flows, all on the "Send an email from a shared mailbox (V2)" action part of them. 

All of them went through on a resubmit, so a good use case for a custom workflow failure monitoring solution and hopefully something that knocks it off soon.

[David_Pezzoli]

My advice is take glance the correct syntax of: the expressions, OData query or SQL query. Sometimes it's necessary add the quotes '....' and the blank spaces to the right place. So, look for similar examples on the Web that use the same steps. Check carefully the exact syntax of the steps used in the Web examples. Make sure the Web examples are recent blogs (with most PA updated version).

[binki-dcx]

@nerfherderInteresting. Sounds like that particular service was broken for a while then.

@David_PezzoliPlease understand that this error comes up when Power Automate itself is having a temporary error or incorrectly handling transient errors from connected services. It has no relation to the correctness of our flows or expressions in our data. Did you read the thread or ever experience this error yourself?

[David_Pezzoli]

Maybe it could be an error due to a recent update in Power Automate of the version of the action? From my experience, when a new version of the action is released, sometimes the syntax also changes ....however, I agree  with you that this is too general a mistake and sometimes temporary!

[nerfherder]

@binki-dcx Never had this error before the other day, just had it again on a 5th flow. Resubmitting without changing source code results in successful run (error cannot be replicated?).

@David_Pezzolithere are not any new actions, expressions, or queries of the SQL or ODATA variety here. just plain dynamic content from one action to the next. 

whats the trick to getting someone from microsoft to see/respond to this thread?

[nerfherder]

seems to be related to the Outlook connector

[David_Pezzoli]

@nerfherder you should open a ticket to Microsoft Power Automate support from Power Platform panel.

[SukieP]

Happened here too, on multiple flows, intermittently, between Nov 3 and 7, when calling the Outlook Email action.  when re-submitting today, all flows ran without error.  Took me 2 hours to find them all and re-submit.

[David_Pezzoli]

Pay attention, there are some deprecated actions for Office 365 Outlook connector: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/connectors/office365/#deprecated-operations-decommission

Also exists issues and limits:

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/connectors/office365/#known-issues-and-limitations-with-actions

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/connectors/office365/#general-known-issues-and-limitations

And Common errors:

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/connectors/office365/#common-errors

 

[nerfherder]

@David_Pezzoli lol i wish our microsoft admins had allowed it, our environment doesnt display in the little widget and im not 100% sure the virtual agent made a support request. The pace of these failures has slowed/dropped to zero so maybe they saw our posts here and fixed whatever it is. 

Thanks for sharing the Microsoft Learn documentation! I went through it and didn't see a reference to this specific error or it being a known issue on the actions I'm using (shared inbox email send) that have been failing.

[nerfherder]

@SukieP there's a way to build custom error notifications in at the end of your flow so that these errors won't take you hours to search and fix. we use the "workflow" expression to pull out the important bits of dynamic content we need to make a link to the specific flow run that failed, and use configure run after failed to make us an individual notification on every failure. This way we aren't waiting around till Sunday or whenever the PA generated failure notification goes out.

[nerfherder]

@David_Pezzoli the only thing i can think of is that I'm only using one connection across 80+ flows for outlook, so its just getting overwhelmed by volume and sometimes throwing this error

[SukieP]

Thank you @nerfherder.  We have just begun the task of adding custom error notifications to all of our flows – we have a long way to go! 

--Susan

[nerfherder]

@SukieP yes but definitely worth it because of SLT. what we did is we came up with the design/layout we wanted in its own, manual flow. then we boxed up all the actions in a Scope and copy pasted it into every flow we're running. no need to manually add each time, love this tool!