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Stop flow while doing list maintenance

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Posted on by Aethyta

Is this normal behavior? I turned off the workflow before making changes to the SharePoint list items (i.e. bulk editing via quick edits). I wasn't expecting it to trigger and run all the flows after I turned the flow back on. It just sent over 100 email after I turned it back on. I was able to cancel some but Power Automate only allows you to cancel 20 flows at a time so was not able to cancel them all quickly enough.

What is the safest way to stop workflows while doing maintenance on SharePoint list?

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Using flows

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wskinnermctc 6,519 Moderator on at

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Yes that is expected unfortunately.

When you "turn off" a flow it doesn't run; however, when you turn the flow back on, it will run for any actions that were conducted while it was turned off. Basically like catching up on work while it was turned off.

I had this happen when I was testing updating a lot of rows and got a similar problem like you had.

I've gotten into the habit of never turning off a flow since I know that issue will come up. If I want to stop a flow from running, I put in a step like Current Time and then whatever step is after the new Current Time step I will change the "Configure Run After" to Failed.
So this says basically, 'run this step only if the previous step (Current Time) fails'. Since I don't expect an automatic step like Current Time to fail, it stops the flow.

You can tell it is in place when the flow arrow changes to red.

Configure Run AfterSet to Failed

This isn't a sophisticated answer, but that is how I prevent the flow from running when I don't want it to.

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Aethyta on at

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@wskinnermctc Thanks for the suggestion. So you insert this new action each time you want to do SP maintenance to stop the flow and delete the action when done with maintenance? I'll try this and see how it works out for me. Thank you!

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wskinnermctc 6,519 Moderator on at

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Yes, I use the Current Time step and Configure Run After Failed especially when I'm testing. I use it like a road blocker for actions I don't want to be completed.

All you have to do is change the configure back to Is Successful when you want the flow to be operational again.

Good Luck!

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Rhiassuring 8,692 Moderator on at

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You could also just insert a "Terminate" at the top of your flow when you're in there updating the list.

That way you can say why it was set to failed so you don't scare yourself later.

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wskinnermctc 6,519 Moderator on at

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This is probably the best solution.

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