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Unexpected Behavior of On/Off for Flow

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Posted on by MatthewMcDMVP

I created a new flow in anticipation of a new business process. The flow starts when a new item is created in a SharePoint Online list. I turned the flow off while we loaded data into the list that did not require the flow. The flow processes a list item and prepares a document library with Managed Metadata and other default settings.

I expected to turn the flow on after the data load and have it work for all new records. What happened is I turned it on and it immediately began processing ALL of the records I had created the day before!!! Thousands of them.

So, I have two questions:

1. Is this how YOU expect the On/Off behavior to work?

2. How should I have prepared the Flow so that it would ONLY run on new records?

I fear that I cannot start this Flow again until I have an answer.

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Using flows

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v-yamao-msft on at

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Hi MatthewMcDMVP,

Thanks for feedback.

I can reproduce this issue on my side. When I turn off the flow, then create new items. After a while, turn on the flow, the flow will be triggered by the items I created before.

However, from this blog we know that if we have a flow we only want to run at certain times, just flip the switch when we don't want it running. I will help confirm this issue on my side and back to you later.

Best regards,
Mabel Mao

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MatthewMcDMVP 37 on at

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Thanks for the confirmation.
@v-yamao-msft wrote:

However, from this blog we know that if we have a flow we only want to run at certain times, just flip the switch when we don't want it running.

But that's not entirely correct as you confirmed that the Flow will process records created while the Flow was "Off".

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berndv 3 on at

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I have the same "issue".
I found a workarround. Go to your flow list and click the three dots -> Save As...
The new flow will only process the items from that moment. Be sure that you disable or delete the previous flow.

Cheers!

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