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.

[Anonymous]

Add me to the list.  I can't get any reliable performance out of "When a file is added or modified (properties only)" trigger.  We're on the free plan, but I've let it sit overnight and still no action.   Sometimes works, but usually not.  What's up with this, MS?  Please fix?

[Anonymous]

Ditto again on our side. We are using Flow Plan 2 also and it's failing to trigger constantly or even remotely near the quoted time we are currently paying for.

[DavidOlson]

Same problem here. On Create and Modify SharePoint Item trigger works fine on test, but not consistently in practice. The flow shows as skipped, even if a field in the item has changed. Sometimes a modification of a future, separate item will trigger a previous stalled flow as well.

[Anonymous]

Any news here?

I have the same issue. My flow runs only well when i use "I'll preform the trigger action". I have a paid flow licence

[MadhuRam]

Same issue here - when will Microsoft fix this critical issue please?

[SCTdan]

This issue is plaguing me on a new project, really frustrating.  Just re-save the flow and it will trigger any backed up runs immediately.  Clearly some sort of bug, can't believe it's still an issue.

[JWhiteFEI]

Yep my Flows runs aren't even showing up in the log, then I edit and save the flow and it triggers all backlogged flows.

I have two Flows referencing the same SP list; one triggers when a "new item is created," and one that triggers "when an item is created or modified." The former works like a charm, the latter rarely fires.

I've seen some MS reps say in another thread that this could be due to how SharePoint batches modifications/changes to SP list items, and other threads where it's attributed to how often Flow/PowerAutomate will allow recurrent triggering. I've also seen it explained as a bug. 

Does anyone with the PA team know which explanation is correct? An answer to this alone would greatly help how I design my Flows and how much time to invest. 

I am in testing right now, so I am editing list items and testing flow triggering at a fairly rapid rate. If I'm simply testing with too short of a window for either SP or Flow to catch, that'd be helpful to know as well.

 @Raj?

[MadhuRam]

I was told it could take 15 minutes or longer at times depending on the type of subscription you have.

Btw, my flow always runs now within a 15 minute window max. 

thx

Madhu

[JWhiteFEI]

Well that's encouraging. I did test the Flow with longer window of time between modifications and it seems to have worked. Do you know of any official documentation from Flow about flow run time frames? Thanks

It says here that if you have the free plan, flows are queued to run every 15 minutes. I guess that solves it

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/power-automate/billing-questions#what-happens-if-i-try-to-execute-r...

[MWAN]

It is July 2020 now, the performance is not consistent. 

I don't know what plan we are on but shouldn't be Free plan. 

I have been waiting a flow with "When a file is added or modified (properties only)" trigger to kick off since 4:18 pm. Now it is 5:05 pm, nothing happened!  I have only one flow enabled now to test it. 

Yesterday at 6:09 PM I had uploaded a file which should kick off "When a file is added or modified (properties only)" trigger. The flow didn't kick off until 11:53 PM and it ran three times!!

[jpenland]

Hi everyone,

I know this is an old thread, but I stumbled upon in while I was trying to solve the same problem.  I wanted to share what resolved it for me in case anyone else comes across this thread like I did.

Scenario:

I have 2 accounts with 2 flows each for a total of 4 flows (that I am aware of) which are all connected to the same list and are using the same "When an item is created or modified" trigger.  3 of the flows trigger at the same time automatically every time an item is created or modified in the source list.  The last flow would not ever trigger automatically.  I had to "edit" the flow and click "save" (even without actually making any edits) in order for the flow to run (and then it would run all the pending instances at once as others have observed).

Solution:

I don't know why this worked, but what I did to resolve the issue was:

1. Save a copy of the bad flow (the one that would not trigger automatically) using the "Save As" button on the flow details page.
2. Turn off the original (bad) flow.
3. Turn on the new copy.

The copy started working right away.  It triggers at the same time the other (good) ones do and runs correctly.

I can't guarantee these steps will resolve the issue for others, but I wanted to share something to try in hopes that it may help someone.