Recurring Reminder Flow from SharePoint list

[jenbaier81]

New to Power Automate - I need to set up a reminder flow that sends an email to the creator of an item in a SharePoint list to tell them to fill out a supplemental follow up form, starting this reminder each 6 months after creation, and repeating (so 6 months, 12 months, and so on). 

I've reviewed a ton of previous forum posts dealing with reminder, but can't seem to wrap my brain around doing this incrementally (6, 12, 18 etc months).

6 months would be calculated against the Created date in my list. Can anyone help me out with how to get started on this? 

Thank you so much in advance for any ideas you might be able to share!

[ScottShearer]

@jenbaier81 

I suggest adding another date column to your list and populating it with a Flow with a date 6 months out when the item is created (when an item is created trigger and update item action).  Use an addDays() expression to do the calculation.

addDays(utcNow(),180,'yyyy-MM-dd')

Then create a Flow using a recurrence trigger that fires every day.  Use a filter query to restrict the items returned to those where the new date column is equal to today:

Loop through the items returned and do two things:

• Send your email
• Update the date column to a date 6 months from today
  • addDays(utcNow(),180,'yyyy-MM-dd')

Using this strategy, an email will go out every 6 months.

Let me know if you need more help.

[jenbaier81]

Hi Scott, does the new calculated date field have to 'show up' in the list, or can I keep it off of any views and just have it lurk in the background? 

[ScottShearer]

@jenbaier81 

First, make sure that the new date column IS NOT a calculated column in SharePoint.  The date will be updated from a Flow.

There is no need for the new column to show up in any view or form - it is best to make it a hidden column in SharePoint.

[jenbaier81]

Hi Scott,

Sorry for all the questions - I created a flow to update my new column value from 180 days after the item creation date - it's turned off, because I am not sure what happens to all the other values in the list columns if they are all blanked out in the flow setup - do they also blank out? This list has a LOT of columns, which I don't want to risk being blanked out, see screenshot:

[ScottShearer]

@jenbaier81 

Great question!

You must supply values for any required column in SharePoint.  You can use the value of the column from Dynamic properties from the trigger for those columns - this will leave the value unchanged.  You have already done this for the Title column.

You might see columns in the Update item action with values already supplied - this happens when default values are specified in SharePoint.  It is important that you supply the value in dynamic properties from the trigger for these columns also.  If you don't the column will be set back to it's default value.

All other columns should be left blank - the values will not be updated.  It's hard to tell from the screen shot but it doesn't look like you have this issue.

[jenbaier81]

Awesome answer - you're saving my life today! Not too many required fields on this one, but they all would have been wiped out. I appreciate your continued help - this is a very different animal than I'm used to supporting!