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Flow lifecycle - Approval Flows expiry?

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Posted on by Community Power Pla... Microsoft Employee

Hello,

We are currently investigating if we can replace our Nintex workflows with MS Flows. However one concern is around lifecycle management:

1. Flows appear to be saved/accessible for 30 days. Does this mean the flow related data is gone after this time?

2. If an approval flow is processed and still in process after 30 days, does the flow expire? So FLow would only be suitable if we are confident that the approval process is completed within 30 days?

Curious to hear others' thoughts and experiences on this.

Daniela

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Community Power Pla... Microsoft Employee on at

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Is anyone able to help with this question?

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v-yamao-msft Microsoft Employee on at

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Hi @Anonymous,

The Run duration and Storage retention of Microsoft Flow is 30 days. Which means that after 30 days, related data will be gone. Besides, it is from the run start time.

After 30 days, any pending steps time-out. Timed-out approvals are removed from the approvals center. If someone attempts to approve a timed-out request, they will receive an error message.

So Yes for both your two questions. Please check the following doc for more details:

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/flow/limits-and-config

Best regards,

Mabel

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Community Power Pla... Microsoft Employee on at

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v-yamao-msft - Thank you, this answers my question.
To be honest this represents a huge limitation... do you know if there is a plan to extend this maximum run & storate retention timeframe?

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Community Power Pla... Microsoft Employee on at

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Hi Mabel,

Do you know to what extent using the Dynamics 365 Business Process Flows may be a solution to retain flow information for longer than 30 days?
Thinking we could recreate an approval flow using Business Process Flows..?

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Bruce_in_Bucks 36 on at

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I send my Approval results to a database with related information, such as approval date/time etc and the record is there forever. I appreciate you want people to be able to complete the approval after 30 days but you've asked about retaining flow information.

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