Disable Auto Turn Off on failure

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Posted on by HMJ_Somerset

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When a new service request comes in I have a flow which sends an email to potential service providers and asks them if they are interested in providing that service. Because many of the potential providers don't respond to the email (it is an email with a Yes/No option) I have configured a branch to run after time out and set the email to time out after 2 days. This has worked well but because there is almost always a potential provider who doesn't respond, the flow configured to "run after time out" triggers each time and completes the flow.

As far as I am concerned if this runs then the flow is a success as it has run as designed, but Power Automate marks each flow where the 'run after branch' is triggered as a failure. After so many failures Power Automate disables the flow automatically which causes all the runs in progress (around 15 are triggered each day) to be cancelled.

How can I stop Power Automate from turning off this flow?

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Using flows

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v-jefferni Microsoft Employee on at

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Hi @HMJ_Somerset ,

I'm afraid there is no way to achieve your need, you will need to turn on the flow manually.

See in below thread and consider vote for the idea linked in it:

Solved: Microsoft turned off my flow due to failures, but ... - Power Platform Community

Best regards,

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pattydej1 6 on at

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Terrible Flow design system. PROVIDE ALL KIND OF ISSUES!!

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michaelt1998 on at

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based

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Sennematic 48 on at

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This is an old post obviously but came across it searching for possible reasons an automation may have disabled itself. For the benefit of others: If you have a fail branch as OP does, just set up a "Terminate" block at the end, and set the "Reason" to Success (or possibly cancelled could be appropriate as well). This will avoid power automate treating the automation as a failure (since you got the expected result, meaning the automation ran successfully)

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rpersad 825 on at

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Even if you enter a terminate block at the end and set the "Reason" to success it will cause an issue given that there will be no easy indication that your flow did not run as it should have. In some cases this may work but other instances developers would have view each flow run and determine whether it had actually performed all the actions correctly.

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Sennematic 48 on at

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The whole point is that for this specific case, the terminate triggers when no action is taken, after a set timeout period. Although the flow probably could stand for some design improvements (it is an old post, after all), in this case the goal is to end the flow after timeout without causing a failure, and this solves that without impacting other branches.

You're correct though that just throwing these willy nilly isn't good design, but these work basically like "exit loop" triggers when used properly

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rpersad 825 on at

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Just wanted to point out the issue for any new developers that may implement these changes without considering if this fix may work in their scenario.

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GA-12032229-0 4 on at

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Power Automate Flow Turned Off: Preventing Deactivation

Incident Summary

Automated flows are being systematically disabled by the environment due to a high failure rate threshold. Although the flows contain error-handling branches, the final execution status remains "Failed," leading the platform to categorize the flow as unstable and turn it off.

Root Cause

The final status of the flow depends on how the last step ends. If the execution follows the main path (with filled arrows), the flow ends as 'Succeeded'. Now, if the flow deviates to an alternate path (with dashed arrows) because of a previous failure, and that branch is the last one to be executed without handling, the final status is 'Failed'. But you can use a dashed path to bypass the error and return to the main path, ensuring success in the end.

Solution

To ensure the flow returns a "Succeeded" status after handling an error, implement one of the following options:

Use the "Configure Run After" to Rejoin the Main Path: If you want the flow to continue its normal routine after catching an exception:

Add a new action (like a Scope or a simple Compose) after your error-handling branch.

Click the three dots (...) on this new action and select Configure run after.

Check both is successful and is skipped.

This allows the flow to "re-enter" the main path regardless of whether the previous step was the main success path or the error-handling branch.

Explicit Termination: If you want to be 100% certain of the outcome, use the Terminate control action at the end of your alternate path and manually set the Status to Succeeded. This explicitly tells the engine that the "failure" was anticipated and managed.

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