Answered

Timeout from Flow

Like (0) Share

Report

Posted on 14 Oct 2023 21:05:23 by Community Power Pla...

I have an app that calls a Flow to export records to Excel. The data is passed from my app using a collection. The flow is taking over 2 minutes to produce the file. I get a timeout error in PowerApps - the flow does continue. How can I increase this timeout? The flow isn't doing anything special just writing to an Excel file.

All responses (7)

Answers (1)

Community Power Pla... on 15 Oct 2023 at 23:24:32

Like (0)

Report

Re: Timeout from Flow

thanks. I did create a flow to output 2 CSVs and did branch the creation/outputting and now the flow runs in about 4 seconds...I get what I need in the right column order and even launch both CSVs, so I may leave it like that. 🙂

I found an article to use a SP Excel file and MS Graph, but one of the steps isn't letting me get to the SP site, so I think I'll leave it.
Pstork1 65,999 Most Valuable Professional on 15 Oct 2023 at 17:01:24

Like (0)

Report

Re: Timeout from Flow

As I mentioned the other workaround would be to create 2 CSVs in a temporary location and have a flow trigger when they are created. Then have that flow combine the CSVs into a single Excel table.
Community Power Pla... on 15 Oct 2023 at 14:34:30

Like (0)

Report

Re: Timeout from Flow

I did see those but the problem is PowerApps timing out, not the flow.
Community Power Pla... on 15 Oct 2023 at 14:33:25

Like (0)

Report

Re: Timeout from Flow

thanks. The long part of the flow is writing to the Excel table - the loop is adding a row and writing from the collection I send over. I think making it an Excel file/table is making it so long. I had originally wanted it in Excel because I am exporting two collections so was putting them in 2 sheets in the same file. I'm not sure how I can change it to use parallelism - if you have any suggestions, that would be great. It took about 4 minutes to output about 183 rows containing 6 columns - not a lot in the columns either...

If I can't change the flow to run faster, maybe it would be faster to just create 2 CSV files...although I liked that everything was in one file.
Pstork1 65,999 Most Valuable Professional on 15 Oct 2023 at 00:47:20

Like (1)

Report

Re: Timeout from Flow

These settings are for a cloud flow not a desktop flow. Also they are for the timeout settings of the action in the flow. The OP was about the timeout when a Power App is calling a flow. These settings have nothing to do with that.
Akah Mandela 445 on 14 Oct 2023 at 23:06:47

Like (0)

Report
Re: Timeout from Flow

If the flow is a desktop flow then You can increase the timeout duration of your flow by modifying the timeout settings of the action that is causing the timeout error.
Click on the three ellipses on the action card, this will open a side menu with options .
Click on settings and here you will be able to see different field settings and also the Timeout duration setting.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
If I have answered your question, please mark your post as Solved.
If you like my response, please give it a Thumbs Up.
Verified answer

Pstork1 65,999 Most Valuable Professional on 14 Oct 2023 at 21:36:07

Like (0)

Report

Re: Timeout from Flow

Flows called from a Power App are called synchronously and will timeout after a couple minutes. I don't know of any way to increase that timeout. You've got two potential workarounds.

1) Take a look at your flow and see what is causing the most delay. Often its using a loop that hasn't been set to run using parallelism. You can often make changes to fix that issue and speed up the flow.

2) If you can't improve the flows performance enough the alternative is to change the way the flow is triggered. Do something like saving the collection to a SharePoint list and then have the list trigger the flow.