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ForEach within ForEach causing issues

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Posted on by AM-07041029-0

I'm having issues where a ForEach gets added to the flow and I end up in a loop. It would be good to understand where I am going wrong. In this specific example:

I have a table. The main columns are DisplayName, TeamID, ChannelID. I am trying to get the TeamID from the table, lookup the channels within the Team, find the one that matches the DisplayName and then save that ID back to the table.

TeamID is not unique and may exist more than once. DisplayName will be unique. In this example there are 46 rows and TeamID has two different values.

It seems that the first TeamID found runs quickly. The results take 60seconds to complete. Then there is a pause of around 30 minutes and the second ID is processed and these then complete in around 30seconds

1) List the rows

2) List the channels (ForEach automatically created)

Find the channel ID that matches DisplayName row and save back to table (ForEach1 automatically added)

Annoying it does work, but there is a big delay and it looks like a loop to me. The first ForEach finds the 46 rows, but ForEach1 finds only 29.

Until record 29 which then finds 20 items for the ForEach1

Any help greatly appreciated.

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Building flows

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lbendlin 8,479 Super User 2025 Season 2 on at

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Not sure what your expectation is - you have nested loops, and the performance in such a scenario depends on the iterations and what you do inside the loops. It is well possible that one or both of your actions inside the loop result in 429 or other throttling from the data source.

Refactor your flow to preload all data into arrays and then loop through the arrays.

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creativeopinion 10,502 Super User 2025 Season 2 on at

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@AM-07041029-0 The logic of your flow needs to be adjusted. Since you want to Compare the data in your Excel Table against the channels returned from the List channels action, you need to have both of these actions OUTSIDE of an Apply to Each (aka For Each) loop.

Both of these actions will return arrays. To cross-reference one with the other, you'll need to use a Filter Array action. If you aren't familiar with how to use a Filter Array action, you might be interested in these YT Tutorials.

If you still run into issues while building your flow, share screenshots of your full flow and the logic behind it. Upload a screenshot of your flow in edit mode. Ensure you toggle off the new designer and click each action to expand it.

Are you using the Microsoft Power Automate Filter Array Action wrong?

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tom_riha 10,185 Most Valuable Professional on at

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Hello @AM-07041029-0,

don't use loop inside a loop to find a specific item - use a filter instead. Inside the first loop, where you're listing all channels of the Teams add the 'Filter array' action and filter only the channel you're looking for. Take the output of the 'Filter array', it'll be just that one team, and process it. Don't loop through all the channels for all the rows, that's a lot of useless operations in the flow.

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