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Flow ID changes when publishing a flow

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Posted on by bkuppens

Hi,

I have a question regarding flow ID's and the recently added ability to save flows in draft mode and publish them when you are ready to use them.
What we learned is that everytime you publish a flow, the ID of the flow changes. This is particularly annoying when you start your flows using buttons that require the flow ID. Every update of the flow requires us to update that button code as well.

I get it that the flow ID changes when you move it to a different solution or environment. But surely, changing it upon every publish seems a bit too much.

Is this "by design" or is it a bug?

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SudeepGhatakNZ 14,396 Most Valuable Professional on at

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@bkuppens

That doesn't sound right. Unless the flow is deployed to another environment, the ID should not change.

I guess you are referring to the ID referenced in the JSON formatting code of the SharePoint.
bkuppens 11 on at

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@SudeepGhatakNZ That were also our thoughts... this doesn't seem something that should happen. But unfortunately, it does. The ID I'm referring to is indeed the one you would reference in the JSON formatting in a SharePoint list (basically the ID you get when you do Export > Get flow identifier).
And to rule out tenant issues... I tried this on a completely different tenant and I have the exact same behavior. Once you publish your flow, reload your solution and reopen your flow... you have a different ID and the launch button is no longer working and needs to be updated.
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bkuppens 11 on at

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Update to this...
We raised a ticket with Microsoft support for this and they confirmed this is "by design" and was introduced with the draft/publish functionality. Which is unfortunate.
However, they also came with a solution/workaround.

When you access the flow through the solution and look at the flow identifier, you see the identifier that changes when you publish a new version. This identifier is therefore not suitable to be used to reference that flow.
When you access a flow through "My Flows" however, you get a different flow identifier and this one does not change and stays the same at all times. Which means that you can use this ID instead.
We tested this and it works as expected.
winniepoohbear 11 on at

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hi @bkuppens I also encounter similar issue. But I have always been using the identifier ID form "My Flows". Every day after I log off from work, and maybe idling for a while, the next day I check, the flow deleted itself and created a new identifier ID... Very frustrating.