Power Platform Community Forum Thread Details

I have a Power Automate flow that sends an approval task with the notifications enabled. The approval task has a link to a document in SharePoint. From Outlook Online, the link used to open the document in a new tab in the browser, but since this week when I click on the link it adds the link as a "mailto" address instead of navigating out of Outlook.

It happens only for a link in an approval task. Normal Html links are opening fine.

Its' like Outlook has an issue with markup language.

Any ideas why or what I can do to fix this? Maybe a Outlook setting?

Categories:

Building flows

This issue has been reported to Microsoft. Currently their suggestions have not resolved the issue. I have an open ticket directly with Microsoft. I would suggest doing the same.

This issue was also posted in the Outlook community and offers a solution: Outlook for Web opens SharePoint link as new email address - Microsoft Community. However, it requires wrapping the link in a uriComponent() expression. I have tried what is suggested and it makes the issue worse.

In the Outlook thread above, Microsoft reports:

Thank you for the additional details and screenshots. Your thorough testing clarifies that the issue is specific to Power Automate’s approval emails and not related to URL formatting, invalid characters, or general OWA behavior. Since the same URL works correctly in regular Power Automate emails but triggers an email draft in approval notifications, this strongly suggests a unique interaction between Power Automate’s approval system and Outlook for Web.

Why This Requires Microsoft Support

Complexity of Approval Emails:
Approval emails generated by Power Automate have a distinct structure (e.g., embedded metadata for approval actions, headers, or authentication tokens) that might inadvertently alter how OWA parses links. These elements are not user-configurable and likely require internal diagnostics.
System-Level Behavior:
The discrepancy between approval emails and regular emails points to a potential bug or compatibility issue in Power Automate’s approval workflow engine. Microsoft’s engineers can analyze backend logs, OWA’s URI handling for approval links, and SharePoint integration nuances.
Limited External Troubleshooting:
Without access to Microsoft’s internal telemetry or code-level details, further debugging would be speculative.

To resolve this effectively, I strongly recommend contacting Microsoft Online Technical Support directly and escalating this as a potential bug. A global admin can visit Microsoft 365 Admin Center Sign in to your account > Support > Help & Support section to create a ticket.

We appreciate your kind patience and cooperation so far. Stay safe and healthy.