Single cloud flow trigger creates multiple instances of desktop flows

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Posted on by Manish Solanki

15,169 Moderator

Hi,

I am calling desktop flow from cloud flow with some input parameters, and it is working fine. When we observe the run history, we can see multiple instances of cloud flows are running and desktop flows are queued for execution even though we trigger only single instance of cloud flow. To test in attended mode, we have configured multiple machine connections with different users. Are those machine connections creating multiple instances of parent cloud flow?

After spending lot of hours, we are not able to find the root cause of this issue. When we create a new set of cloud & desktop flow, it runs only once without creating multiple instances. Does anybody face this issue? Any input or help is highly appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

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Power Automate Desktop

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Agnius Bartninkas Most Valuable Professional on at

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Can you share a screenshot of your cloud flow? Also the details of the trigger, and the run history?

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Pstork1 69,601 Most Valuable Professional on at

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Are all the desktops involved in a Machine Group? Try removing one of the machines from the group and target that user/machine for the attended flow. If you only get one instance then the problem is the machine group.

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Manish Solanki 15,169 Moderator on at

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Thanks @Agnius for your prompt response. I appreciate it 🙂

In cloud flow, there are actions to get items from SharePoint (config list) and then we run the desktop flow using "Run a desktop" action, passing some JSON object and other input parameters. I could not share the screenshot of the flow but can share more details if needed.

Cloud flow triggers manually using some input parameters. When we run the cloud flow using button, it creates an instance and when it reaches to "Run a desktop flow" action, it creates another 2 instances. Those 2 instances are showing in running state in cloud history and when we check monitor those desktop flows are queued for processing. All users who have the machine connection configured in cloud flow faced the same issue when they trigger it.

Regards,
Manish Solanki

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Manish Solanki 15,169 Moderator on at

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Hi @Pstork1

Thanks for responding. No those are not part of machine group but are individual machines. We are running in attended mode with individual user machine connection configured to run desktop flow. So, every time the user wants to run on his/her machine they just switch the machine connection in "Run a desktop flow" action.

Regards,
Manish Solanki

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Pstork1 69,601 Most Valuable Professional on at

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- What is the Trigger in the Cloud flow? Is it Instant or Automated?

- Are you updating the SharePoint list somewhere in the flow after the Get Items? If you are then it might be creating an infinite loop

- Is the Run a desktop flow in the main branch of the flow or in a loop?

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Manish Solanki 15,169 Moderator on at

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Hi @Pstork1

Here are my response:

- What is the Trigger in the Cloud flow? Is it Instant or Automated?
Instant

- Are you updating the SharePoint list somewhere in the flow after the Get Items? If you are then it might be creating an infinite loop
Using child flow, we are fetching the configuration from SP list. The same child flow is called from another instant cloud flow, but we are not encountering any issue there.

- Is the Run a desktop flow in the main branch of the flow or in a loop?
Not in loop but in main branch. We have used parallel action to get values from SharePoint, but those actions are placed above in the flow.

Regards,
Manish Solanki

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Pstork1 69,601 Most Valuable Professional on at

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Unless you have shared it with others and they are running it I don't have any other ideas why its doing what you are describing

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Agnius Bartninkas Most Valuable Professional on at

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It's not exactly best practice to have users modifying the connection when they run the flow. Instead, the flow should be shared with these users and they should be running it from their own accounts, having only their own connection configured for them.

What does the desktop flow do? Does it interact with PA cloud in any way?
What are the retry policies like in your cloud flow?
What sort of inputs are shown in these 2 additional instances of the cloud flow? Are they the same as the inputs you provide when you manually launch the first instance?
Have you tried re-building this flow from scratch to see if it happens there, too?

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Mayank-Gupta 9 on at

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Hi @ManishSolanki
Please try removing all desktop flow connection references and then try creating a new one and then test it. Sometimes it triggers for all connections references of the shared user who is running the instance. It should work with creating a new one and deleting all existing connections.

If this helps & solves your problem, please remember to give a 👍 and accept my solution as it will help others in the future.

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Manish Solanki 15,169 Moderator on at

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Thanks @Mayank-Gupta, As suggested by you I have removed all the shared connections and it worked!

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