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People picker control not always writing to data source list

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Posted on by OneWinPlease

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My app is running mostly fine, but sometimes the people picker control for one of the fields doesn’t write to the SharePoint list. Users say they DID enter a name, but it doesn’t stick on the back end. This people picker column has an Items property using a Choices formula. (The field in the SharePoint list is a people/groups column.) See screen shots below. Any ideas? A colleague mentioned maybe creating a variable for the OnChange property of my people control, but I don't quite understand how to do that. (Especially when I have a varFormData set at the start of the app.)

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BCBuizer 22,831 Super User 2026 Season 1 on at

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HI @OneWinPlease ,

Could it be the users typed in a name, but then did not select an option? If no options are selected, nothing will be saved.

From personal experience: be sceptical of what users say in these scenarios, ask them to show what they are doing and try building in validation, such as a disabled submit button if nothing has been selected for mandatory fields.

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OneWinPlease 155 on at

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@BCBuizer - thanks, but the submit button is disabled if nothing is in that field. It also won't accept a start/backspace blank, or a partially typed name. (I am one of the users who tested this and found it wasn't always working. )

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BCBuizer 22,831 Super User 2026 Season 1 on at

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Hi @OneWinPlease ,

Can you then please share:

What data source you are using

What is the type of the column that is having the issues

The Items property of DataCardValue1

The DisplayMode property of the submit button

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OneWinPlease 155 on at

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@BCBuizer -
data source is SharePoint list.
Column type is a People column.
DataCardValue1 Items property is : Choices([@'New Service Request List'].'2nd contact')
Display Mode property of submit button:
If(
(CountRows(DataCardValue55.Attachments) = 0 && DataCardValue10.Selected.Value = "Yes"|| CountRows(DataCardValue55.Attachments) = 0 && DataCardValue14.Selected.Value = "Refund Exception") || IsBlank(DataCardValue1.Selected),
DisplayMode.Disabled,
DisplayMode.Edit
)

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BCBuizer 22,831 Super User 2026 Season 1 on at

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Hi @OneWinPlease ,

Although I can't replicate the issue, I'm aware that sometimes people report these type of issues when using comboboxes. The fix that is usually applied you can find below:

If( ( CountRows(DataCardValue55.Attachments) = 0 && ( DataCardValue10.Selected.Value = "Yes" || DataCardValue14.Selected.Value = "Refund Exception") ) || IsBlank(DataCardValue1.Selected.DisplayName) || IsEmpty(DataCardValue1.SelectedItems.DisplayName), DisplayMode.Disabled, DisplayMode.Edit )

This formula can be applied to the DisplayMode property of the Submit button.

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OneWinPlease 155 on at

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@BCBuizer - thanks. Can you tell me what is it about this new submit button formula that fixes the writing-to-list error? Just trying to understand since my brain doesn't think well in formula-speak.

Edited to say: I am testing your suggestion out but it didn't work, unfortunately. The Power App Monitor is saying that datacardvalue during the session is "successful" but it's not writing to the sharepoint list. Maybe it's a bug in the list. .... Second edit: I decided to put a duplicate version of the Backup Contact datacard in the form. Then I submitted the form and it was successful. So I deleted the 'bad' datacard and went ng with the newer one. I did notice now that the Items property for the combo box is slightly different, with OData info now added to the column name. (This change also broke 3 connected automated flows, and I had to remove the Apply to Each action in them before the flows would work again. So... once more, it does seem buggy. Or if it makes sense, I don't have the depth of knowledge to understand why. At any rate, here it is a few hours later and the problem has cropped up again.

Choices([@'New Service Request List'].OData__x0032_ndcontact)

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BCBuizer 22,831 Super User 2026 Season 1 on at

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Hi @OneWinPlease ,

Did you check your Dataverse table to see if anything in there happened that may cause the issue? To me it sounds like, although hard to believe, the column names have changed.

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OneWinPlease 155 on at

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@BCBuizer - I created that column just before I made the power app and have not changed the name. Investigating why this might be happening, I discovered that OData can be used with SharePoint. (I don't normally work in this area, so it's all foreign to me.) Why they are connected in my case is unknown. Our central IT department deploys back-end settings across the organization that I have no knowledge of, but could be influencing this.

My SharePoint list was copied and adapted from a large, 35-column list that I think was originally exported from InfoPath years ago, by people who no longer work here. Maybe something weird happened with the export, or whomever finalized the original SharePoint list set things up in a way none of us can figure out. My column was brand new, though. I've asked my IT unit to investigate but so far, no progress.

(Another example of weirdness: I recently noticed the Locations Choice column in SharePoint was set to checkboxes, which allows multi-selections. Since we don't want multiple Locations, I changed it to single choice. But then the app started inconsistently writing to that list field. (The app's combobox was set to NOT allow multiples.) So I had to go into the SP list, turn checkboxes (multiples) back on, and writing to the list became consistent. Clearly, changing settings long after your list and app are operating together can cause all kinds of instability. I haven't changed anything with that Backup contact field, but am making a lot of changes and additions to the app even though it's live. Building the airplane while we are flying it.)

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BCBuizer 22,831 Super User 2026 Season 1 on at

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Hi @OneWinPlease ,

Always fun to get the responsibility over a solution with a lot of history. Hopefully your IT unit can help clarify things.

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OneWinPlease 155 on at

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@BCBuizer -
Unfortunately they're unable to help. They appear to have gone as far as they can, but we are a huge organization and they are short staffed. I get the feeling it may be network or similar issues. (I asked them about OData but they don't feel it's what's causing the problem.) Our users are spread out over 50 locations with computers with hardware and software that in many cases is quite outdated.

There are probably more things I could do on the Submit button (OnSelect) to make error checking more robust, but I don't know how yet. If you care to share thoughts on that, here's my formula below. I don't have any OnSuccess or OnFailure code so far for my form(s). But really, the help tickets are getting submitted fine, it's just the one people field that doesn't write to the SP list about 25% of the time. (I do have the subit button's DisplayMode formula you suggested to capture any blanks or partial entries in the Backup contact field.)

IfError(
Patch(
'New Service Request List',
VarFormData,
BasicInfoForm.Updates,
Form2.Updates
),
Notify("Error: the request could not be submitted", NotificationType.Error)
);
Notify("Success!", NotificationType.Success);
Navigate(SuccessScreen)

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