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Email with Options NOT locking, User able to go back to email and make a new choice

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Posted on by Tj7933

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Good Morning,

According to Microsoft CoPilot:
User's image

But this is not happening for us. WE have had users go back 43 times choosing different options and the workflow repeating over and over.

How can we lock in the user's decisions?

Thanks.

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David_MA 14,956 Super User 2026 Season 1 on at

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Can you show the configuration of your flow. I use this action in about 20 different flows and have not encountered any issues with it doing this yet. I will do some testing to make sure this is not something new caused by an update though. What could be happening is that you created an infinite loop and the flow is re-triggering. But since I don't know how the flow has been configured, I cannot be sure.

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SebS 4,826 Super User 2026 Season 1 on at

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“Single response” in this context means the flow action waits for and returns one selected option before continuing. It does not mean the email becomes a locked, tamper-proof approval record.

The actionable email can still remain in the user’s mailbox, and users may be able to reopen it and select another option. Because of that, the process should not rely on the email button being disabled.

The safe pattern is to store the first response against a unique request ID, mark the request as completed/locked, and ignore any later responses. For approval-style processes, the Approval connector is normally a better fit because it gives a clearer audit trail and state management.

Create a request record before sending the email.

Send the email with options.

When a response comes back, get the request record.

Check whether the record is already locked.

If locked, terminate the flow.

If not locked, update the record with the user’s choice and lock it.

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David_MA 14,956 Super User 2026 Season 1 on at

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I have done some testing and cannot get the e-mail with options action to make the flow keep "repeating over and over." Can you show a screen shot of the configuration of your workflow and a screen shot of a run that illustrates the repeating from the response?

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Tj7933 143 on at

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@David_MA - The flow is not repeating on its own, the users are going back to the oriignal email and making the same choice over and over, triggering a continuation of the workflow at that step.

I got a response the indicated to indicate the following in the advanced options:

Making these changes prevents the user from selecting again, instead they get a message saying option was already selected.

TJ

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David_MA 14,956 Super User 2026 Season 1 on at

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Since I cannot replicate the issue and you don't want to show how your flow is configured or show the run flow history to illustrate it looping, I cannot provide any other guidance. Hopefully someone else has encountered this issue.

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