Unanswered

Changes in the flow update sharepoint list directly without any action

(0) Share

Report

Posted on by Nuriel

177

Hello all, I just started learning power automate to develop flows for sharepoint lists & libraries (used nintex workflows in the past for this purpose).

With my first flow I am already experiencing wierd issues, which don't make sense and for which I can't find anything in google.

My flow triggers on creation and modification of items in the sharepoint list.

Expectation: I make a change to the flow, e. g. update column value upon met condition - > I save flow -> I modify a list item in sharepoint -> If condition met, flow changes column value of the modified item

Observation: I make a change to the flow, e. g. update column value upon met condition - > I save flow -> Sharepoint column value updates itself directly without any modification to the list items, and for ALL items at once.

What am I doing wrong?

Thx

P. S.: If I am wrong to post in this part of the forum, please move. Thank you.

Categories:

Using flows

I have the same question (0)

All responses (11)

Answers (0)

Michael E. Gernaey 52,972 Super User 2025 Season 2 on at

Like (0)

Report

Re: Changes in the flow update sharepoint list directly without any action

Hi,

Apologies I know you are new but I do not understand what your describing.

You are describing it wrong, you aren't making changes ina flow and then saving a flow.

You are triggering your flow based on a changed item in SharePoint and then you are trying to update another record in SharePoint or the same record that triggered the flow?

Why are you running a loop, what is the "value"? When you trigger a Flow, it gives you a reference to the row that changed. Are you just trying to change one of the columns within the same row that triggered the flow?

You dont use a loop for that. Can you explain the steps in your flow in detail and I can help you.

Was this reply helpful? Yes No
Nuriel 177 on at

Like (0)

Report

Re: Changes in the flow update sharepoint list directly without any action

Hi, yes, maybe I described it in a too confusing way, but the issue is so confusing in itself. So I will try it again.

Issue 1: Instant Updating

My expectation is, that when I build a flow in the power automate designer that nothing happens to the related sharepoint list, unless I actually change anything in Sharepoint itself OR trigger the flow manually, e. g. via test function or whatever.

What happens here is that, as soon as I am entering any value in the update sharepoint item object in power automate and just only save the workflow - this saving seems to trigger the flow to run. The corresponding sharepoint list column is then being updated with this value for all items. Thus, saving of the flow seems to trigger the flow to run over the complete list.

Issue 2: the loop.

Power automate forces me to use the for each loop object, when I use when created or modified as a trigger - "value" is all items of the list by default. I actually don't want to use the loop - from Nintex workflows I was used to, that when I use when created or modified trigger (or any other trigger actually) the flow starts explicitly only for the current item. Would I bulk edit the sharepoint items, e. g. via grid view, Nintex would start a new workflow instance for every item. This seems not be the case here.

In the meantime I found a solution to adress at least only the current item. I put a compose current item (see below) behind the for each object (here renamed to Apply to current item only). The loop runs then only for the current item and not the rest of the list. I found this solution in the web and it works, although I don't quite get the logics behind it yet.

If there is any more elegant solution to let the flow adress only current item by default without any loops or anything, it would be highly welcome.

I hope I could get myself clear now. It is rather difficult to explain it plain and easy.

Thank you!

Was this reply helpful? Yes No
Michael E. Gernaey 52,972 Super User 2025 Season 2 on at

Like (0)

Report

Re: Changes in the flow update sharepoint list directly without any action

Hello,

Ok let me start with this. I am not even aware of where the value thing is coming from. It is supposed to trigger for a single item.

Can you do me a favor please. Right after the trigger, please add a Compose. Then click in the box and take a screenshot of where Value is listed(please make sure to get the section header).

Was this reply helpful? Yes No
Michael E. Gernaey 52,972 Super User 2025 Season 2 on at

Like (0)

Report

Re: Changes in the flow update sharepoint list directly without any action

Now let's talk about the rest of it.

Can you please look at the history, please open one of the ones that ran right after you "saved" but you said nothing was changing the list.

I want to see what is coming INTO the trigger.

Also, please on the Details page, click on All Runs (in the history right corner).
On there please filter by Running instances and see if there are any other instances running.

Cheers
If you like my answer, please Mark it as Resolved, and give it a thumbs up, so it can help others
Thank You
Michael Gernaey MCT | MCSE | MCP | Self-Contractor| Ex-Microsoft
https://gernaeysoftware.com
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelgernaey

Was this reply helpful? Yes No
Nuriel 177 on at

Like (0)

Report

Re: Changes in the flow update sharepoint list directly without any action

Hi,

I added a compose and it automatically again added the appy for each object with value before. It is same, btw. with When an item is created trigger as well as with when an item is created or modified
I am not sure which section header you mean, I hope it's allright like this. So this happens to me every time, when I am trying to adding anything after this trigger except neutral stuff like Initialize variable...

P.S. I did that in a new flow from scratch and included only componentd shown, to make sure that this was not due to all the other stuff I had in the original flow.

Still it behaves the same...

Was this reply helpful? Yes No
Nuriel 177 on at

Like (0)

Report

Re: Changes in the flow update sharepoint list directly without any action

I just made another go by entering a value into a text column in the update item object and saving the flow

After that this flow ran - however I am not sure how I can see what triggered it

In the all runs section there were no other running instances

There were no running instances

Was this reply helpful? Yes No
mbarbosa 146 on at

Like (1)

Report

Re: Changes in the flow update sharepoint list directly without any action

Hey @Nuriel ,
you can check out what item triggered the flow this way:

1- Go to the last run that you see on flow's run history.
2- Click on the trigger and select "Click to download" on Outputs section:
3- A window/tab will open where you can find trigger's output data and the item that triggered it. Something like this:
4- Regarding the loop, as you said, Power Automate "forces" you to use it and iterates through all the items in the list. So what I usually do (maybe there's another way, but this one works for me) is to add a flag column on the list. So Once the item has been handled by the flow it sets that flag on a certain value that you should check with a condition within your flow and only run the flow for that item if the flag value is the one you set when the item hasn't been handled by the flow yet.

Always the different scenarios have different solutions, you should look for the logic that serves you the best to find which items you want the flow to work with within all the items of the list.

Was this reply helpful? Yes No
Michael E. Gernaey 52,972 Super User 2025 Season 2 on at

Like (0)

Report

Re: Changes in the flow update sharepoint list directly without any action

What I am confused by is why the trigger is giving an array of values. I dont know about you @mbarbosa I have dozens of sharepoint triggers and I even created one on the fly just to make sure i wasn't drinking too much water (can't do coffee lol me and Caffeine are a no no). Anyway not once did I get an array to loop through.

So I am not sure why it "knows" its going to be an array of items, because its the trigger driving that. Clearly I am missing something too.

Was this reply helpful? Yes No
mbarbosa 146 on at

Like (0)

Report

Re: Changes in the flow update sharepoint list directly without any action

I would really like to see how you did that @FLMike , because it would be really helpful for me. Maybe I've been taking the array thing as a given and it was something I was misusing.
Thanks!

Was this reply helpful? Yes No
Michael E. Gernaey 52,972 Super User 2025 Season 2 on at

Like (1)

Report

Re: Changes in the flow update sharepoint list directly without any action

Here is a simple flow, heck it only needs to be since yours has this from the get go.
As you can see I created the same trigger.
I added a compose.
As you can see I purposely put the Dynamic window up AND I selected the invoice field from the INPUT trigger.

If this was an Array it would have converted it to an Apply to Each. But it doesn't because its not. And I have tons just like this.

Cheers
If you like my answer, please Mark it as Resolved, and give it a thumbs up, so it can help others
Thank You
Michael Gernaey MCT | MCSE | MCP | Self-Contractor| Ex-Microsoft
https://gernaeysoftware.com
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelgernaey

Was this reply helpful? Yes No