Power Automate

Respond_to_a_Power_App_or_flow timeout prior 2 Minutes

(0) Share

Report

Posted on by TSte

242

I run a Flow from PowerApps, that takes Data from the App and creates a PDF from that data.

the flow ran around 6000 times the last few months and i never had this error.

now i got a new user working with that App

and when he is using my flow, he occasionally gets this error:

The execution of template action 'Respond_to_a_Power_App_or_flow' is failed: the client application timed out waiting for a response from service.

The response is mandatory, as it confirms that a file is created or there was a problem (eg. if some data did not match the "standard", or file directory was not found)

in total there are 28 steps prior the response (90% of these Steps did take 0 Seconds to execute).

saying 0s = 1s it would be 28 Seconds + 10% that took longer then 0s would be totaling to ~ 45 seconds runtime - so pretty far away from 120 seconds.

does someone have an idea how to find out what's going wrong at these few runs that are failing?

maybe its relevant:
The user is one of a few users, working with iPad instead of Samsung Tablet, cause he has additionally a 3rd Party software that only runs on IOS

but also other IOS users didn't have this problem before.

Categories:

General topics

I have the same question (0)

All responses (3)

Answers (0)

Sort by

Suggested answer

11manish 3,333 on at

Like
a
(0)

Report
Copy link

Link copied!
The error occurs because Microsoft Power Apps times out (≈120 seconds) while waiting for a response from Microsoft Power Automate, even if the flow eventually completes.

Root cause

Intermittent delays (PDF generation, connectors, network latency)

These delays may not show clearly in run history

Mobile/iPad usage can increase chances due to network/session variability

Fixes

Best: Use an asynchronous pattern (respond immediately, process in background)

Move Respond to Power Apps earlier in the flow

Optimize heavy steps like PDF generation

Was this reply helpful? Yes No
TSte 242 on at

Like
a
(0)

Report
Copy link

Link copied!

Hello,

as mentioned in my post, the time between flow call and response step in the Flow was far away from running more then 120 seconds

(max. 45 seconds - more likely 20 seconds as most of the steps didn't take even 1 second).

there where 5000+ Successful runs already, and it only occurs for this one new user.

The response step to PowerApps happens at the earliest possible stage of the flow.

Was this reply helpful? Yes No
Suggested answer

WillPage 2,339 Super User 2026 Season 1 on at

Like
a
(0)

Report
Copy link

Link copied!

It should be easy for you to figure out which steps are taking a long time. You said 90% complete with 0s, but you haven't said anything about the other 10%. There will be an obviously long-running action inside the flow.

You can set a timeout for any action within the action settings. So if most of your flow runs are fine, then set the timeout to a value a little bit longer than the top end of what you'd normally expect it to take. The format is like PT30S for 30 seconds

Now, underneath that action, create a parallel branch and put a "Respond to a Power App or Flow" action there and set its run-after to the previous action is timed out. And then set the response properties in the same schema the app expects, with a message to say it timed out and please try again - or handle it in your OnSelect logic when you trigger the flow.

Was this reply helpful? Yes No