Flow Not Starting - SharePoint Item Modified

[ryanr-pw]

Hi,

I have a Flow that is supposed to run when an item is new or modified. I have verified that I am using the new or modified trigger - clicking on the "View Operation" button says "Triggers when an item is created, and also each time it is modified." And yet, sometimes it just doesn't run. Other times I edit an item in SharePoint and it will run on the item I've edited plus others which I did not edit (at least not recently). It's possible that the two are related: it doesn't run when I want it to, but then editing something else discovers that I had previously edited something else. I haven't done enough testing to be confident in that theory, but I am more concerned about the failure to run than the extra runs.

In any case, with this Flow it is really important for configuring permissions that it runs within a few minutes. We have already had at least a dozen times where the Flow didn't run but the list says the item is up-to-date so there has been significant confusion about the discrepancy.

Any ideas of how to fix this? If it's just a bug, it's a major one and has been there for weeks if not months.

[v-yamao-msft]

Hi @ryanr-pw,

It seems that you are using the SharePoint trigger When an item is created or modified. When using this trigger, flow will be fired when an item is created or modified.

You said that “it will run on the item I've edited plus others which I did not edit ”, do you mean that the flow even run when you do no changes on the list?

Which Flow Plan are you using? Have you configured the Limit columns by view? How is your flow created?

Please share more details on your flow to help reproduce this issue on my side.

Best regards,

Mabel Mao

[ryanr-pw]

You said that “it will run on the item I've edited plus others which I did not edit ”, do you mean that the flow even run when you do no changes on the list?

It doesn't run on no changes on the list, but it will run on changes to a different item. I've seen this on multiple Flows using the same trigger. For example, here's what just happened in my latest test:

Yesterday I attempted about a dozen times to run on a particular item (item1). It would not run on any of those attempts. Today I attempted to run it on a different item (item2). It ran on item2, and also ran on item1 just once, not for every time I tried yesterday. There's nothing obviously different about the content of item1 vs item2, and some previous tests seemed to rule out the possibility that it works for some items but not others - I tried changing the same one multiple times and sometimes it worked and sometimes didn't.

Which Flow Plan are you using? Have you configured the Limit columns by view? How is your flow created?

This particular account is an Office365 E3 and there's at least two Flows with the problem (different lists). I also have a Business Essentials account on a completely different tenant. I thought I had seen the same problem there before, but I just did about 6 tests and they all worked, so maybe not.

I was not using the limit columns by view. I decided to try that now with a view that has 6 columns, tested updating an item twice, and still no Flow runs. I took that a step further and made sure that the column I was changing was in that view, but that didn't fix it either.

All were all created in a browser from flow.microsoft.com. 

[ryanr-pw]

I'll add that I just tried rebuilding the Flow from scratch, turning off the other one, in case there was something broken elsewhere in the Flow. This is the entire Flow right now and it still has the problem:

- Trigger when an item is created or modified on the list with limiting columns by view.

- Initialize a variable that is a direct copy of one of the columns in the list item

Still won't even start when I change an item in the list. I'm sure it used to be more like 50/50 if it would work and now it seems to be more like 95/5 that it is not going to work. That's a guess, not a scientific calculation.

[v-yamao-msft]

Hi @ryanr-pw,

What specific view is the flow using? Please share more details on it.

I am trying to reproduce this issue on my side.

Best regards,

Mabel Mao

[ryanr-pw]

It wasn't filtering on any view originally, as I previously mentioned. Because of you bringing it up, it now filters on the main view which is called "All Staff". The column names are First Name, Last Name, Job Title, User Account, Permission Groups, E-Mail.

Here are my not-exactly-scientific findings after probably a couple hundred tests:

• Usually if it doesn’t start, but then another item does successfully start within the next day or so, it will pick up the first one and run it then (along with the new one).
• It seems that the less recently an item was modified before the current modification, the more likely it was to run the Flow.
• Creating a new item seems to always run the Flow. It’s just editing an existing one that has problems.
• Putting all that together, the best strategy to run the Flow on an item I just edited seemed to be to create a different new item (then delete it to clean it up afterward).

I wonder if this is one of those "it's a feature, not a bug" scenarios. There's a potential justification that MS doesn't want a Flow to run multiple times on the same item within a short time span. 99% of scenarios, that's probably fine and makes some efficient sense. Might even help with Flows that accidentally have an endless loop of updating itself which starts the Flow again.

[Anonymous]

I have the same issue, i have a "When a file is created or modified (properties only)" trigger on my sharepoint folder. 

I then have macros in Excel that processes data and saves to onedrive

One drive then syncs these files to Sharepoint - which is in turn meant to trigger the email notification to a distibution list and attach the file. 

I found that, if i have the file open after i create in onedrive the Trigger does not fire in Flow

But if i dont open the file when created, i have no issues with the Trigger not firing. 

Situations like removing the option to open file after saving when doing PDF exports helped alot for me. 

[colonel_claypoo]

I'd say I'm currently experiencing the same problem.

I'm on the Free Flow Plan and it seems the trigger 'When an item is created or modified' is also limited to 5min as I would only expect the 'Recurrence' trigger to be. So although a list item may be created or modified it won't be picked up i.e. the flow be triggered unless 5min have passed. Can anyone confirm this? I don't remember it working like that a couple of weeks ago.

[swolfsohn]

I am experiencing this same issue and agree completely with ryanr-pw's "not-exactly-scientific" findings.

[BugsB]

We are experiencing issues with the flow not starting as it should from an upload or edit. No reason we can see. We are a highly experienced flow team. 

[Anonymous]

I have faced very similar issue when I expect that it should run but it didn't.

Then I have a look at the flow free plan and pricing. It clearly said that it takes 15 minutes

https://australia.flow.microsoft.com/en-us/pricing/

I went for lunch and come back and yes after 20 minutes it automatically runs (for those items that I changed before lunch).

Therefore this is by design. Your workflow is OK and item change triger will activate. The only thing is since it is a free plan, it takes 15+ minutes. Even for plan 1 it takes 3 minutes.

Hope this help somneone else

[shaunboot]

Hi,

wondering if you have made any progress on this.

I'm having the same issue with the "When a file is created or modified (properties only)" trigger.

I have a flow that sends a notification when a column in a Document Library is updated.

Infuriatingly it works when I run a Test and then change an item. It also seems to work when I Edit the flow (make no changes) and then hit Save. It then runs the backlog of previous triggers. 

[Anonymous]

Im not too sure what has fixed the issue, but it seems to of by itself. Which probally is not of much help to you, we are also on the premium plan.

[johndavies]

I too have this issue, exactly the same : 

The only way it gets triggeres is if 

a) a differetn item in the list is changed (not that item)

b) the worklow is "saved" 

Can we get a timeline on a fix for this ? 

Thanks 

[Jane-DC]

We are also seeing this exact issue. We also require immediate triggering for permissions. Is there a fix in the pipeline?

[Anonymous]

Found this thread browsing for issues on When An Item Is Created or Modified trigger and saw it was still active. I am having similiar issues as well with this trigger being unreliable. I have it set to trigger for a specific SharePoint list that sometimes works just fine but it just stops completely for when an item is created and when one is modified even if it is a new item or modifying an item that previously worked with the trigger in the past. 

[CurtisClark]

Ditto here. This is for incident tracking for us so it's kind of important key member of the organization get notified for updates. For now, I'll try programming a seperate flow that runs manually, but that's very clunky.

https://us.flow.microsoft.com/manage/environments/Default-f1e31150-57dd-4b78-9208-3c24b9366a23/flows...

[MP001]

Here the same issues,  not based on SP Item Modified but used when: "When an item is created".
it never triggered on some new created items... 

[bdc604]

Same issue -SP trigger only works in test. I guess I have to upgrade and pay $$ so I can wait 3 minutes for my flow action to run. I guess I’ll upgrade and script up some redirect screens for users with a countdown timer; please wait 3 minutes for your changes to take effect...

[bdc604]

Same issue -SP trigger only works in test. I guess I have to upgrade and pay $$ so I can wait 3 minutes for my flow action to run. So... upgrade and script up some redirect screens for users with a countdown timer; please wait 3 minutes for your changes to take effect...