SharePoint List Migration (Get items/Create item) Issue with People Column

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Posted on by WC-KSTILL

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Hello,

I am trying to migrate some data from one list to another. Basically just trying to get 2020 data only, I have the entire thing figured out but I there is one small problem.

When we disable a user and remove their SharePoint license because they no longer are with the company... these users are in People Columns on the old list. For example "Assigned To" or "Approved By" etc...

When it tries to create the item in the new list everything works until it comes across a user that has been disabled/no SharePoint license. How can I get around this?

I'd really like to keep there names filled in, the users still exist in Azure AD. However, if it's not possible can I just leave those particular entries empty some how?

Maybe a get profile for that column, if it comes back and it doesn't exist then make it empty? I get errors when using Empty also

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Building flows

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Pstork1 69,665 Most Valuable Professional on at

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First a little background. In SharePoint there are two places that SharePoint pulls people information from. One is the user profile and the other is the User information list for the site Collection. When a user leaves a company their user profile is deleted, but the user information list for the site collection is not purged. So entries like Created by, and Modified by continue to work based on the entry in the user information list.

I assume the new list you are referring to is in a different site collection, and therefore has a different user information list, than the original list. So when copying entries to the new list it can't copy the person info, because they aren't there. There really is no way to fix that issue. If you do it outside Power Automate you'll see Created by and Modified by revert to the system account. You'll have to do somewhat the same in Power Automate for this to work.
sudharsan1985 1,325 on at

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Hi @WC-KSTILL

I agree with @Pstork1. To resolve this, try to get the user information by using the action Get Profile and if it returns the data add it, and if it's not, then you have to update it with test users if the column is mandatory else with the null value if it is not mandatory. It works differently if it is a multiperson column.
WC-KSTILL 117 on at

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Something like this?

For the UPM, can I use the email from the column?
WC-KSTILL 117 on at

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Some of them are coming back with this error. I already had an idea this would happen.

There is no way to have it continue with null if it errors?
WC-KSTILL 117 on at

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So I sort of got it working however if the variable is null, create item won't accept it. It's not a "Required" column either.

Anyway around this?
Pstork1 69,665 Most Valuable Professional on at

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If its null then just leave the column blank rather than trying to fill in a null value. That means you'll need two different create actions, one in the yes and one in the no side of your condition.
WC-KSTILL 117 on at

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It doesn't let me use a null or blank value.

When I set a variable, the value is mandatory.

So I tried setting to value to an empty variable string and still nothing. I an going to end up setting it to our system account. No Biggie. I also had to edit the "Configure Run After" to even run during a failed.

You guys definitely pointed me in the right direction.

This is what I ended up with
Pstork1 69,665 Most Valuable Professional on at

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I meant use a blank instead of a variable when creating the item.
WC-KSTILL 117 on at

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The problem is I have like 5 people columns.. if it was just one I could have two separate Create Items in yes and no.

As you can see above I had to do 5 get profiles, 5 conditions etc, it ended up being easier to fill the data with our SharePoint system account we use for all the flows
Pstork1 69,665 Most Valuable Professional on at

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If the user exists in the User Information list the create will still work, but the search for the profile won't. So for them you would need to search the user information list for a match. If you are copying to a different site collection where the user isn't in the User Information list then your only other choice is to create a dummy user as a placeholder and set the column to that.