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Deleting ToDo and or Planner tasks (in bulk)

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Posted on by ClevrCompuBloke

I have created various flows that allow automation of tasks on a regular basis (one for a finance team who need to be reminded of up to 70 repetitive tasks each day between two people).

I see that since 2017 folk have been asking for completed tasks to be able to be cleaned up or deleted. in planner https://powerusers.microsoft.com/t5/Building-Flows/Delete-Planner-task-when-complete/m-p/41326

and in ToDo

https://powerusers.microsoft.com/t5/Building-Flows/Delete-Todoist-Task/m-p/77999#M7763

Since this question was asked a few years ago, and you can manually delete tasks in ToDo (in bulk by a page at a time) has anyone discovered a way to bulk delete completed tasks?

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Building flows

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v-bacao-msft Microsoft Employee on at

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Hi @ClevrCompuBloke ,

Unfortunately, Power Automate still not add this feature to delete the task, please check these ideas so that it might be considered for future release:

https://powerusers.microsoft.com/t5/Power-Automate-Ideas/Flow-delete-tasks-in-planner/idi-p/54920

https://powerusers.microsoft.com/t5/Power-Automate-Ideas/Planner-Trigger-Task-Deleted/idi-p/57511

https://powerusers.microsoft.com/t5/Power-Automate-Ideas/quot-Send-an-HTTP-Request-via-Planner-quot-action-block/idi-p/307529#4

Besides, we could try to use Graph API to delete the specified task but I am afraid that I am not able to provide a suitable method for you for the time being. I will try it on my side, if there is any solution, I will post back.

Best Regards,

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ClevrCompuBloke 66 on at

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Thanks @v-bacao-msft its not a big deal.
You can delete via ToDo in bulk a page at a time, so and this does remove them from planner and whilst its a manual task and has do be done by the person who had the item assigned to them, it does work.

🙂

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VictorIvanidze 13,079 on at

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Hi @ClevrCompuBloke , you can do that using GRAPH API (premium action 'Invoke an HTTP request').

Invoke the following HTTP request:

DELETE https://graph.microsoft.com/beta/me/outlook/tasks/<taskID>

to delete a task.

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ClevrCompuBloke 66 on at

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@VictorIvanidze Im not familiar with that, can it be used to delete in bulk ?

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VictorIvanidze 13,079 on at

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At first you have to get a list of tasks and then you will delete them one by one.

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v-bacao-msft Microsoft Employee on at

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Hi @VictorIvanidze ,

Could you please provide a template to help us achieve this requirement?

Thank in advance.

Best Regards,

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VictorIvanidze 13,079 on at

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Hi @v-bacao-msft ,

I'm afraid I can provide a template only on commercial basis. I believe I gave enough info to help everybody to write such flow.

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v-bacao-msft Microsoft Employee on at

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Hi @ClevrCompuBloke ,

Please try to refer to the following method to delete tasks in Planner task.

Check this link and make sure we have Group.ReadWrite.All permission.

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/graph/api/plannertask-delete?view=graph-rest-1.0&tabs=http

First, we need to get access-token from Graph explorer.

If you have got the access-token, then we could configure Flow to delete the task.

Use List tasks to get tasks, you could use Filter array or condition to filter tasks.

The fill the access-token we have got in Compose.

Use the following expression to get Etag.

item()['@odata.etag']

Finally, configure HTTP action to delete tasks.

Image reference:

Hope this helps.

Best Regards,

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ClevrCompuBloke 66 on at

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I will try this over the weekend, its a bit busy at work right now.

Thanks

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cglambert 6 on at

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I have a workaround for this really important need of a bulk delete feature.
We create and delete hundreds of tasks per day. Using a free Chrome browser tool for GUI automation, iMacros, you can record yourself deleting one task at the top of a column, then loop and play the macro and delete 99 tasks at a time in a few seconds. There are two caveats:
1) After you record the macro, before saving, you have to delete the line that reloads the Microsoft Teams web page.
2) This tool can be dangerous, whereby if new tasks come in and change your view, you could automate deleting the wrong tasks. In order to prevent this, first set your task filter to only select items from a single column of your view (e.g. low priority tasks ready for deletion). That way, if new tasks come in they will not add new frames and confuse the macro.
It is all a bit clunky, hence the need for a proper feature. However, if you are deleting hundreds of tasks a day as I am, this could save hours of your life from such drudgery.

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