When an item or a file is modified Exclude Specific columns

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Posted on by ssalmans5323

Hi Everyone,

I am using When an item or a file is modified trigger but i want to exclude two columns from that, it means even though any update happens on those two columns he flow should not trigger.

how to achieve this in an easy way?

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creativeopinion 10,502 Super User 2025 Season 2 on at

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Whenever you are using an automated trigger such as the When an Item or File is modified trigger in your flow, you should consider using Trigger Conditions. This way you can prevent your flow from triggering unnecessarily and set the conditions that must be met in order for the flow to trigger.

Check out this YT Tutorial for more details on how to add Trigger Conditions to your flow: 4 Ways You Can Use Trigger Conditions in Your Microsoft Power Automate Flow

If you are using an Automated Cloud flow trigger in your flow—you need to consider adding trigger conditions.

Do YOU 🫵 know what a trigger condition is? Trigger conditions can be set in most flow triggers. These conditions you set must be true for the trigger to fire. In this Power Automate tutorial, I’m going to show you how to use trigger conditions in your flows to control when your Power Automate flows trigger.

If your plan has flow run limits—you can avoid triggering your flows unnecessarily by using trigger conditions.

I’ll cover four different flow examples that would benefit from trigger conditions:
⚡️ Triggering a flow when a column is changed to a specific value
⚡️ Triggering a Flow When an Event Updated or Deleted
⚡️ Triggering a Flow When a New Folder is Created
⚡️ Triggering a Flow When a Specific Email is Received I’ll also show you a trick on how to easily create the expressions needed and give you a few tips on how to troubleshoot your flow.

IN THIS VIDEO:
✅ Four different flows that would benefit from trigger conditions
✅ What is a trigger condition?
✅ How to add a trigger condition to your flow
✅ How to trigger a flow when a column is changed to a specific value
✅ How to trigger a flow when an event is updated or Deleted
✅ How to trigger a flow when a new folder is created
✅ How to trigger a flow when a specific email is received
✅ How to troubleshoot a trigger condition
✅ How to prevent case sensitivity issues with a trigger condition
✅ How to use the filter array action to easily compose an expression that can be used in a trigger condition

Hope this helps!

Consider giving me a ❤️ if you liked my response!

👉 Level up your Power Automate skills by checking out my tutorials on YouTube
👉 Tips and Tricks on TikTok and Instagram

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ssalmans5323 51 on at

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Hi @creativeopinion,

I am aware of the trigger conditions but the issue is what trigger condition should use in my scenario.

Lets say i have 12 columns in my Sharepoint list by using the When an Item or File is modified trigger flow is triggering whenever any of the 12 columns are updated but in my case i want to exclude 2 columns.

So it should look for the changes only on 10 columns.

Can you tell me the trigger condition for this scenario?

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creativeopinion 10,502 Super User 2025 Season 2 on at

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It would help if you could provide a screenshot of your flow. This would help provide more insight on the logic of your flow. Trigger conditions can't check whether a specific column has changed necessarily. It can check for a specific value and trigger your flow based on the specified value(s) in your trigger condition.

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ssalmans5323 51 on at

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ohh, ok. I am trying to add the trigger condition for excluding the specific columns but unfortunately when i checked the body of the When an Item or File is modified trigger condition i didn't find it.

So i implemented the logic using Get Changes for an item action inside the flow and checking whether the specific column has changed or not.

my intention was not to waste the flow only for checking the column has changed or not but unfortunately there is not trigger condition for that in Power Automate.

The logic i am using is correct right? Is there any easy way?

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creativeopinion 10,502 Super User 2025 Season 2 on at

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As far as I know you can't use Trigger Conditions to check whether a specific column has changed—instead you can check for a specific value. Can you adjust your workflow at all? For example you can run a flow on a schedule on an interval.

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Michael E. Gernaey 53,493 Super User 2025 Season 2 on at

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Hi

Create a View that only has the Columns you want, remove the others.

In your Trigger, click open advanced options and pick your View

Now you have excluded them.

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