Parameter 'To' cannot be null or empty. (but it's not empty!!)

[Drogon]

Hi all, I have a flow that's been working great for the last 2 months, until today. Today it refuses to execute the "send email" action, citing a missing "To" address (see below images). 

There is a value in "To", I even deleted it and typed it in again at the source - it's typed into the SharePoint list this triggers off of as plain text. And this was working as recently as yesterday. 

[ekarim2020]

The error message is saying that the Hiring Manager UPN field does not contain any data; it is empty.

Please check that SharePoint list item and confirm that the Hiring Manager UPN column contains a value. All Hiring Manager UPN items will need to contain values.

Ellis
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[Drogon · Accepted solution]

It definitely had a value in it:

I tried deleting then re-adding the UPN, and that didn't work. 

Ultimately I got it to work by deleting the entire list item and re-adding it. Seems like a bug. 

[ekarim2020]

Well done on fixing the issue. Yes, sometimes simply deleting an action and re-adding it can solve a number of weird problem in Power Automate. Similarly, saving a new copy of the flow can fix issues too when all else seems to fail.

Ellis

[v-yujincui-msft]

Hi @Drogon ,

Glad to see you solved the problem.
You could mark your answer as a 'solution' to close the case.

Best Regards,
Charlie Choi

[Drogon]

I actually don't consider this closed. In my earlier post, I hadn't deleted and reinstated the action, I had to delete and then reinstate the entire list item. This week, I added another entry, and the Hiring Manager UPN field was absolutely filled in on the list, and I get the same error: "Parameter 'To' cannot be null or empty. clientRequestId: ab0d81ba-ab5c-48d1-a3b5-0265bc55e477".

So today I deleted and reinstated the entire action in the flow, same error. I've tried making the email field in question plain text (so a string field), and I've tried making it an O365 person, and either way, the flow keeps failing, claiming the field is empty. 

This has got to be a bug - this field is not empty. 

Hiring Manager UPN is a single line of text in the SharePoint list: 

We send TO the Hiring Manager UPN:

Field Hiring Manager UPN is filled in on the SharePoint list with a valid email address: 

Flow fails, claiming the field is empty: 

[Drogon]

I got so frustrated that I added every singe iteration of the Hiring Manager UPN to the TO field (as text, as a person, as a hyperlink, etc.), and still get the same error, that TO is empty. Below I tried using a different "send email" action, to see if it made a difference. It doesn't.

[ekarim2020]

What do address do you see in the raw outputs of the Send an email action?

Please show us entire flow and the runtime outputs - to ensure that these fields are actually populated with values:

Ellis

[Drogon · Accepted solution]

Finally figured this out, and boy is it user error!! But it may be something other folks run into. 

The issue was that the flow is triggered by the addition of an item to a list. 

I was adding two items to the list, and to be efficient, I opened the list in grid view and began adding both at the same time - so jumping back and forth between the two rows, populating information. Then at the end, EXIT GRID. 

But apparently what SharePoint does is begin processing the first new row the second you click down to the next row, even if it's all still in edit mode. So because the UPNs were one of the last columns I entered, the flow was triggering well before the data was available. 

So lesson learned: if you trigger off a new item, enter in one item at a time!!