Timer issue in a Parallel Branch inside of an apply to each with concurrency enabled in an applied to each loop

[WBADAM03]

Hey all,

I have been working on this one block of powerautomate on/off for a month. 

Below is my block of the flow that is problematic: 

After consulting with the community and R & D, I mostly have this functional like I want. 

This is an apply to each loop based on how many results are returned from an ODATA query in a get items from sharepoint.

The array could be 2 people, 6 people, or 8, it is dynamic. 

The apply to each loop has concurrence enabled so that all people get an approval at once and are emailed with a direct voting link (often committee members are confused by the teams approval UI, the direct URL is much easier for them).

Then it waits for the approval, then when a response is received, it will make a sharepoint record to enable me to monitor who hasn't voted yet (since I can't see anything in an apply to each when it is still running).

After a person votes, their email is put in an array. After 7 days, a parallel branch will look at the array and for every person returned by the odata query from the original get items step that is NOT in the approval array, will email them a reminder email with a direct voting link.

After testing it, it worked flawlessly. However, my delay was set for minutes or hours, never days. Once it went live, I realized that even once all people vote, the flow snippet above will NOT progress to the next step (Another apply to each loop for another approval step). 

See picture above.

I know that all 4 people have voted, and their votes went through successfully. As you can see, however, it has not finished the loop, despite the terminal step being completed for all 4 array items. 

After further investigation, it did finally go to the next step after 7 days (the length of the delay in the parallel branch).

This is not ideal given the 30-day limit of a flow. 

I can't see what occurs in an apply to each loop, and to make matters worse, I can't even peak code for an apply to each loop. 

I looked at the peak code option for the timer and the "wait for response" and I can't find any logic that seems flawed. 

Since the actual code might as well be a mystery, I can only assume that if you have a parallel branches in an apply to each, that it won't progress until both branches are fulfilled instead of only 1.

I have the timer outside of the do until to allow time for the variable to be read correctly. Without a timer to check the variable, it will instantly check the variable within seconds and see that all people haven't voted and send all people a reminder email, despite them not having time to have voted. The timer allows 7 days for their email address to be added to the array so that they don't get a reminder email.

My ultimate questions are the following:

1: How can I make this flow work so that the flow will progress when everyone votes vs when everyone votes AND 7 days pass?
(I want thread A executed to progress the flow, I do not care about thread B being executed).

2: How can I view specific code for what happens in an apply to each loop?

3: Is there any way at all that I can view the specific input/output of a running flow that is an apply to each that hasn't been completely finished running? This would be a HUGE relief.

Any assistance is appreciated. 

[wskinnermctc]

Very interesting, I'm not good with parallel branches so I can only think of this caveman style. 

You already have a SharePoint list that is making a record of people who approve. I don't know if that is a row for each individual approval or a row that has like 8 columns of approvers. 

I don't have this worked out in a flow, but brainstorming, using a scheduled flow on that approval tracker list. 

You could have the scheduled flow go through the list and get the rows that aren't completed or something, check the date the approval was sent, then send a reminder email. Whatever data or links you want to put in the reminder email, like names or links, just have it in the SharePoint list.

Do you think that approach would work for you?

[Ryan_B]

@WBADAM03 

I'm not sure if this is what you are looking for, but I did something similar to this and also had issues until I did it this way. I'm not using a parallel branch or apply to each, but I would think this could work. If not, maybe it gives you an idea to try out:

I went into my Wait for an approval settings and set the Timeout duration to P7D, which is 7 days, and set my Run after for the scope to has timed out. This means that if they reply before the 7 days, it'll continue on and ignore the reminder portion. If no response is received in 7 days, the reminder portion triggers and performs the next actions. Within this section I set another scope to timeout after 7 days, perform some actions, then stop the flow.

My next action is a Condition which will only run if the reminder scope section is skipped.

Doing it this way allowed me to have my reminder without waiting on a predetermined time. Hope this helps in some way!

[WBADAM03]

That seems like a great approach, but I need all people to vote on the committee, if 6/7 people vote, I can't progress to the next step (by design). 

Would that approach result in 6/7 people voting but the business process going to the next step? If so, that won't work for this specific instance.

[Ryan_B]

My version above will continue if the person doesn't approve after 14 days, as that was our business process. You would need to modify it to fit your requirements, which means to keep sending the reminder until they approve it. You'll still be limited to an extent by your 30-day maximum runtime, so you will need to finish the flow before then regardless. If you want this to extend further than 30 days, then you will need to have multiple flows that kick-off a new "session" once the limit is reached.

At some point you have to account for the maximum allowed time for the approval before doing some other action. Whether that be sending a message to the main person who kicked it off that it wasn't approved by X individual(s) and needs to be submitted again, or that it failed and another action needs to happen based on your business process.