Stop turning off infrequently used Flows

[hilary_stoupa]

As per my post here, I have some Flows that are important parts of business processes but rarely used. I need a way to "opt out" of having these automatically disabled. Re-enabling them only turns them back on for a bit until they get disabled again (it seems like about a week), unless they are used. This is a production environment - I can't just add and remove dummy data to trigger these so that they stop getting disabled.

[NicoleHarris]

I completely agree. This is very frustrating because many of the Flows I've built are not things that are used often, but are very helpful in automating certain business processes. 

[_a_user]

I understand that resource management is important when managing cloud services, but 90 days is very little time. At least there should be a way to renew the flow's expiry date instead of having to wait for it to be turned off. Making the flow run is not a good way to renew it. In some cases it means sending alert emails to many managers and VPs, in others it implies modifying important information.

[ITCowboy]

I agree. I have a list that basically contains maintenance records for vehicles. Users can add new problems to the list as they are found, and it then sends off notifications to the appropriate people. 

Saying that, this year there have not been very many additions to this as the vehicles are used less (Due to Covid) and also have been replaced with new ones, meaning there have not been new entries. 

This does not mean this list is not needed, as a windshield, tire, or any other small thing could go wrong at any time. So since it is not used, Microsoft turns it off, and then noone will get the notification. This is not acceptable, and is not good business practice. I am tired of Microsoft deciding what we need, and in this case, making things not work, and even possibly, putting employees in harms way.

[pskelly]

Completely agree that this is a bad implementation of a rule.  Considering I have several Quarterly and end of quarter Flows that only run once per quarter, this is very annoying.  There needs to be a way to turn this off for an individual Flow, or get smarter about the algorithm used.  At the very least if the trigger is a timer, check cron expression for the duration.  

[hilary_stoupa]

Oh and it looks like it may be dependent on tenant. On a client tenant, the messages say:

We noticed that your flow has not run at all in the past 90 days.

On my company's tenant, we only get 60 days:

We noticed that your flow has not run at all in the past 60 days.

EDITED TO ADD: looks like my client's tenant is now caught up to mine, and the most recent Flow shut off notice also says "60 days". So this is consistently getting worse.

🙂

[trad]

Yes please this is very annoying for infrequently used flows.

[seismic]

Microsoft doesn't want you using their service I guess. What an odd decision. Do they delete my email if I don't log into Outlook?

[WillPage]

I came here to make the same point. This is extremely annoying. I have multiple flows that trigger on a selected item in SharePoint.

They are for approving changes to documents and in some libraries there's only ever 2 or 3 of approvals in a year.

These flows are now useless because Microsoft keeps turning them off. It's ridiculous. I can't even use Logic Apps for these because that trigger isn't available in Logic Apps.

[hilary_stoupa]

There was a response to my original post on the issue saying that this is an "expiration limit":

https://powerusers.microsoft.com/t5/General-Power-Automate/Prevent-unused-Flows-from-being-turned-of...

Which directs to:

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/power-automate/limits-and-config#expiration-limits

Which says:

[DarrellTrimble]

It is apparent that Microsoft wants to play in the world of business processes, but does not seem to have the knowledge or experience in their product teams to understand how real business processes are used.   Go talk to IBM or venders who understand real enterprise business, and stop hiring inexperienced managers.  The fact that you did this, did not announce it widely (hidden in Limits and Configurations doc) shows a real disregard for your customers.  Our customers found out only when they stopped running!