How to restart flow when trigger happens before flow ends

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Posted on by CU04060001-0

Hello community,

I'm completely new to Power Automate. I started my first workflow yesterday and got it working to a certain extent today, but now I'm stuck.

My current workflow in Outlook is shown below and works like this:

1) Check email received
2) If an email body contains the text "Start Process" --> (this is the Trigger)
3) The workflow waits 30 minutes
4) When 30 minutes have elapsed, sends 3 emails (1 email every 5 minutes)
5) After sending the 3 emails, the process ends and restarts if it receives the Trigger again.

What I want to do is modify it so that if it receives the Trigger before it finishes sending the 3 emails, it stops the previous

process and restarts the workflow. In other words, if 30 minutes have passed and the workflow has sent the first email and

receives the trigger before sending the second or third email, I want the previous workflow to stop and restart the 30-minute

countdown to send the 3 email again.

I'm not sure if I'm explaining myself clearly. How can I do this? I'm using Office 365.

Thanks in advance for any help.

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Building flows

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SpongYe 5,909 Super User 2026 Season 1 on at

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Hi @CU04060001-0,

Yes, your requirement makes sense. What you need is a restartable timer pattern.

Power Automate does not normally let one running flow instance directly stop a previous running instance when a new email arrives. The common workaround is to store a “current run ID” somewhere, and have each running instance check whether it is still the latest one before continuing.

You can do this with a small SharePoint list, Excel table, or Dataverse table.

Create a table with columns like:

Key CurrentRunId LastTriggerTime

In the flow, when a new email arrives, first check whether the email body contains the text “Start Process”. If it does, create a variable called something like MyRunId and set its value to guid(). Next, save this value in your SharePoint list as the latest CurrentRunId. After that, add a delay of 30 minutes. When the 30-minute delay has finished, read the SharePoint item again and compare the stored CurrentRunId with the MyRunId value from the current flow run. If the two values are different, it means that another trigger email arrived after this flow started, so this flow should be terminated. If the two values are the same, then the flow is still the latest run and it can send the first email. After sending the first email, add a delay of 5 minutes. Then check the CurrentRunId again before sending the second email. After the second email, add another 5-minute delay and check the CurrentRunId one more time before sending the third email. This way, if a new trigger email arrives at any point, the older flow run will stop itself before sending the next email.

This means every time a new Start Process email arrives, it writes a new run ID. Any older flow instance will detect that its ID is no longer current and stop itself before sending the next email.

If you have any questions or feedback, please let me know. Have a great day! 😊

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SpongYe Power Platform Enthusiast [LinkedIn] | [Youtube| [My blog]

I love to share my knowledge and learn from others. If you find my posts helpful, please give them a thumbs up 👍 or mark them as a solution ✔️. You can also check out my blog [@S pongYe] for some cool solutions and insights. Feel free to connect with me on any of the platforms above. Cheers! 🍻

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Vish WR 3,748 on at

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@CU04060001-0

Power Automate doesn't natively let a new trigger cancel an already-running instance.

The go-to workaround is a flag-based approach — store a timestamp or run ID in SharePoint/Dataverse when the trigger fires. At each step of your flow, check if that stored value still matches the current run. If a newer trigger has updated it, the older run just exits gracefully without sending the remaining emails.

So the flow would look like:

Email received → write a unique run ID to a SharePoint item

Wait 30 mins → check if the stored ID still matches this run → if not, terminate

Send email 1 → check again → wait 5 mins → repeat

Vishnu WR

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Please ✅ Does this answer your question if my post helped you solve your issue. This will help others find it more readily. It also closes the item. If the content was useful in other ways, please consider answering Yes to Was this reply helpful? or give it a Like ♥

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CU04060001-0 6 on at

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Hi @SpongYe,

I've tried to make it like you suggested me. I've added a table in Excel rith the column names you said and is updated during the flow the values of

CurrentRunId LastTriggerTime

I think I'm close. The flow works when receives the initial trigger, but doesn't stop and re initiate when receives

a new trigger before first flow ends.

I'm attaching the definition.json of my current flow and the flow image in 2 formats.

Thanks for any help.

Regards

flowFormat1.png
flowFormat2.png
definition.json
Your file is currently under scan for potential threats. Please wait while we review it for any viruses or malicious content.

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CU04060001-0 6 on at

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Hi @Vish WR

I'm trying to store a run ID.

I need to set a condition after each step to check is run ID is the same?

How terminate the previous flow?

Regards

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Vish WR 3,748 on at

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@CU04060001-0

The screenshot is not visible , u can use image upload instread of file atatchment

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CC-08062038-0 4 on at

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Hi @Vish WR

Yes, it still shows this message for the files I attached.

"Your file is currently under scan for potential threats"

Well, I've inserted code snippet and flow in 2 different formats. Thanks for any help.

Format 1

Format 2

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SpongYe 5,909 Super User 2026 Season 1 on at

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@CU04060001-0 thanks for the update. It sounds like you are close.

Updating the Excel table will not stop the previous flow by itself. The previous flow run must read the Excel row again after each delay and compare the current Excel CurrentRunId with its own local MyRunId.

Each run should create its own MyRunId using guid() and write that value to Excel. After the 30-minute delay, get the Excel row again. If the Excel CurrentRunId is different from the local MyRunId, terminate the flow. If they are the same, continue and send the first email.

You need to repeat the same check before email 2 and email 3. Make sure you are comparing against a freshly read value from Excel, not a value stored earlier in the flow.

Also check that trigger concurrency is not set to 1, because the new trigger must be allowed to start while the previous flow is still running. Otherwise, it will not update Excel in time to cancel the old run.

If you have any questions or feedback, please let me know. Have a great day! 😊

-----------------------
SpongYe Power Platform Enthusiast [LinkedIn] | [Youtube| [My blog]

I love to share my knowledge and learn from others. If you find my posts helpful, please give them a thumbs up 👍 or mark them as a solution ✔️. You can also check out my blog [@S pongYe] for some cool solutions and insights. Feel free to connect with me on any of the platforms above. Cheers! 🍻

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CC-08062038-0 4 on at

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Hi @SpongYe

My current flow is creating a new CurrentRunId for each trigger. What I still don't get is what I'm missing to stop the previous flow.

What action/block should I add in "FALSE" part of the condition? I currently have a "Terminate" block but that is not stopping the previous flow.

Regards

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