Power Automate

Power Automate Flow to Sync and Update Microsoft Lists Without Duplicates

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Posted on by SP-02040520-0

Hello Team,
I’m working on a Power Automate solution involving three SharePoint lists:

Lists Involved:

EmployeeDetails – Contains the following columns:
Employee ID (unique identifier), Name, Department, and Status

ContractorDetails – Same column structure as EmployeeDetails

CombinedList – Target list with the same columns (Employee ID, Name, Department, Status)

Objective:
Whenever a new item is added or an existing item is updated in either EmployeeDetails or ContractorDetails, the corresponding record should be either created or updated in the CombinedList.
Key requirement: No duplicate records should be created in the CombinedList.

Flows Implemented So Far:
1. Instant Cloud Flow:

Manually merges all items from EmployeeDetails and ContractorDetails into CombinedList.
✅ Working as expected.

2. Automated Cloud Flow 1:

Trigger: When a new item is created in EmployeeDetails
Action: Create a new item in CombinedList
✅ New items are created in CombinedList successfully.
❌ When an existing item is updated in EmployeeDetails, it creates a new item instead of updating the corresponding one in CombinedList.

3. Automated Cloud Flow 2:

Trigger: When a new item is created in ContractorDetails
Action: Create a new item in CombinedList
✅ New items are created in CombinedList successfully.
❌ When an existing item is updated in ContractorDetails, it creates a new item instead of updating the existing one in CombinedList.

Issue:
The only part where I'm stuck is:
When I edit an existing item in either EmployeeDetails or ContractorDetails, a new item is being created in the CombinedList.
Expected behavior: The corresponding item in CombinedList should be updated, not duplicated.

It would be helpful if you could provide a flow/ steps to meet my requirement. Thank you very much.

Categories:

Building flows

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David_MA 14,191 Super User 2026 Season 1 on at

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I think I would create four flows to do what you want:

When a new item is created in the employee list, which will add it to the combined list.

When a new item is created in the contractor list, which will add it to the combined list,

When an item is modified in the employee list, it will find the item in the combined list and update it.

When an item is modified in the contractor list, it will find the item in the combined list and update it.

This should work if I understand your requirements correctly. The issue you are having currently is because you are not separating the actions of creating a new item and modifying an item. You are trying to do both when a new item is created or modified.

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SP-02040520-0 4 on at

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Hello Team,

Could you please help me by providing the correct Power Automate flow(s) that can achieve the following requirement?

Thank you.

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David_MA 14,191 Super User 2026 Season 1 on at

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What I outlined below should work. Since I was not going to take the time to write this out as that's like providing free consulting advice, I used Copilot to write an outline of what you need to do. You may need to make some adjustments, but what it outlines looks like it would work:

Flow 1: When a new item is created in the employee list, add it to the combined list

Create a new flow in Power Automate.

Select the trigger: "When an item is created" from the employee list.

Add an action: "Create item" in the combined list.

Map the fields from the employee list to the combined list.

Flow 2: When a new item is created in the contractor list, add it to the combined list

Create a new flow in Power Automate.

Select the trigger: "When an item is created" from the contractor list.

Add an action: "Create item" in the combined list.

Map the fields from the contractor list to the combined list.

Flow 3: When an item is modified in the employee list, update it in the combined list

Create a new flow in Power Automate.

Select the trigger: "When an item is modified" from the employee list.

Add an action: "Get items" from the combined list.

Use a filter query: EmployeeID eq 'EmployeeID' to find the corresponding item.

Add a condition to check if the item exists in the combined list.

If yes: Add an action "Update item" in the combined list with the modified data from the employee list.

If no: Add an action "Create item" in the combined list to add the item again.

Error-handling:

Add a parallel branch to handle errors.

Add an action: "Create item" in the combined list if the item was deleted.

Flow 4: When an item is modified in the contractor list, update it in the combined list

Create a new flow in Power Automate.

Select the trigger: "When an item is modified" from the contractor list.

Add an action: "Get items" from the combined list.

Use a filter query: EmployeeID eq 'EmployeeID' to find the corresponding item.

Add a condition to check if the item exists in the combined list.

If yes: Add an action "Update item" in the combined list with the modified data from the contractor list.

If no: Add an action "Create item" in the combined list to add the item again.

Error-handling:

Add a parallel branch to handle errors.

Add an action: "Create item" in the combined list if the item was deleted.

Additional Tips:

Ensure unique identifiers: Make sure each item has a unique identifier (EmployeeID) to match items between lists.

Test each flow: After creating the flows, test them to ensure they work as expected.

Monitor and troubleshoot: Regularly monitor the flows and troubleshoot any issues that arise.

Try this and then if you encounter specific issues post another question specific to the issue you are having trouble with.

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Power Automate Flow to Sync and Update Microsoft Lists Without Duplicates

Flow 1: When a new item is created in the employee list, add it to the combined list

Flow 2: When a new item is created in the contractor list, add it to the combined list

Flow 3: When an item is modified in the employee list, update it in the combined list

Flow 4: When an item is modified in the contractor list, update it in the combined list

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Community site session details

Power Automate Flow to Sync and Update Microsoft Lists Without Duplicates

Flow 1: When a new item is created in the employee list, add it to the combined list

Flow 2: When a new item is created in the contractor list, add it to the combined list

Flow 3: When an item is modified in the employee list, update it in the combined list

Flow 4: When an item is modified in the contractor list, update it in the combined list

Additional Tips:

Helpful resources

News and Announcements

Quick Links

Introducing the 2026 Season 1 community Super Users

Kudos to our 2025 Community Spotlight Honorees

Congratulations to the March Top 10 Community Leaders!

Subscribe to this forum!

Select categories

Leaderboard > Power Automate

Featured topics

Product updates