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Flow Randomly Stops Working

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Posted on by sbranum

I have a flow which has been working for many weeks, but suddenly stopped working. I cannot find any reason why this is happening. The flow first checks for a response for an online form and then gets the response details. After that, it checks for conditions, creates an approval, sends an email, waits for the approval, and then inserts the approval and form data into a spreadsheet on SharePoint.

In the screenshot, you will see the form successfully detects a new response and gathers those responses - and then does nothing. There is no failure message or anything to indicate what is happening. We have not changed anything in regard to the form or flow - it just stopped. There are several runs like this in the flow (all random - no rhyme or reason). I have tried to resubmit the flow several times, but it still stops. I have also tried to run tests, but they also stop. In this scenario, by stop, I mean the flow does not proceed to the next step and appears to be running forever.

Have you encountered this? If so, how did you fix it?

I did verify the form responses are being collected by detailing into the "Get Response Details" area of the flow. I cannot display the responses here, as they are security-sensitive.

Thank you for any help.

Flow Issue.jpg

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Jcook 7,783 Most Valuable Professional on at

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Hello @sbranum

This error seems to be from the Condition.

Add 2 Compose actions before your Condition and add the 2 values you want to compare in those Compose actions. So we can see what exactly is being evaluated by the condition.

I explain this here:

https://flowaltdelete.ca/2020/05/29/power-automate-tips-and-tricks-for-beginners/

Tip#1

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sbranum 13 on at

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@Jcook Thanks for the tip. I added a Compose function to determine what the outputs where. Here is the result of the Input/Output:

Essentially, there are divisions within our organization. When this particular form is submitted, individuals pick the division director from a list. Then, the flow begins evaluating the division director against conditions until it finds a match. Once it finds a match, it creates an email and approval item for the individual. I just went through and recreated the whole workflow, so I haven't had time to rename the steps for clarity. In this case, the Output does not meet the first condition, so it should flow along to the next division condition for evaluation; however, it never gets evaluated at all against any step. The puzzling thing to me is, it was working perfectly and stopped working one day.

Here is a small snippet of how it flows. The division director in the output above is further down in the evaluation. There are five divisions, so there might be an easier way to accomplish this.

In case you were curious, here's what the flow is "supposed" to do:

1. Once a new response is recorded on Forms, trigger the flow.
2. Grab the responses from the form.
3. Evaluate one of the response items to determine if the division director matches the desired director in the condition.
4. Once a match is found, create an approval item and send an email to the division director.
5. Wait on the approval for further action.
6. Once approval is received, add a row to a spreadsheet in Sharepoint.
7. If approval is not received, email the original form respondent to let him/her know the approval was denied.
7. Send an email to an employee notifying her of the new data in Sharepoint.

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Jcook 7,783 Most Valuable Professional on at

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Hello @sbranum

I believe this is because of the multiple nested conditions.

I would consider using s Switch action instead of multiple Conditions.

Switches are like Conditions, but are used when you want to check against multiple scenarios, rather than true or false

You can have a Switch action and have each division in each Switch statement.

You wouldn't have to recreate the flow, Just add the Switch, and drag the correct approvals and actions inside the correct case in the Switch.

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sbranum 13 on at

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@Jcook - Thanks for the suggestion of using a switch - certainly makes it easier to view and troubleshoot. I made the changes and restarted the flow; however, it still appears to be stopping after successfully grabbing the form responses and running the "compose" function. I am getting the proper input and output, but then the flow goes nowhere. I included screenshots of the flow status and of the "switch" for this particular individual.

Thanks again for all the help. Sorry to be such a pain!

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Jcook 7,783 Most Valuable Professional on at

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@sbranum

Is the approval being approved / rejected?

Flow will not show the branch of actions where the Approval is until it has been processed and complete

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sbranum 13 on at

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@Jcook The approval isn't even being created. I did download all of the responses from the form into Excel and discovered a common issue - they are all for one particular individual. Is there a possibility there could be something wrong with her particular user account in Active Directory?

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Jcook 7,783 Most Valuable Professional on at

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@sbranum

Does the user have access to flow? (license)

As a test, you could change the approver to your email, and see what the flow does.

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