Skip to main content

Notifications

Power Automate - Using Connectors
Unanswered

SharePoint Online sometimes returns "HTTP Error 503. The service is unavailable" and Flow fails

(1) ShareShare
ReportReport
Posted on by 8

We have developed several Flows which work mostly with SharePoint API. Usually we use "Get item", "Update item" and "Send an HTTP request to SharePoint" actions.

 

Most of the time everything works as it should. However, sometimes actions fail seemingly because SharePoint Online server becomes unavailable:

 

service_unavailable_1.png

 

Message in that JSON shows this:

 

service_unavailable_2.png

 

I've seen this "HTTP Error 503. The service is unavailable." error message on-prem. Usually this happens during IISRESET. And I do understand Microsoft has to restart SharePoint Online servers as well, however, Flow should be able to handle this kind of problems.

 

As far as I can tell, Flow automatically retries request if it receives HTTP status 408 (request timeout), 429 (too many requests) or anything from 5xx. In this case SharePoint return message clearly states "HTTP Error 503". However, action itself displays "Status code: 400". I think this is the reason why Flow fails - it does not even try to resend request to the same URL.

 

Currently I don't have any viable solution. I could add "run after failed" path to each SharePoint action and put them in some kind of loop, but this seems very complicated.

 

Has anyone experienced this problem? Maybe there is a normal solution which does not involve redoing everything from the start?

 

  • kikopkop Profile Picture
    kikopkop 35 on at
    Re: SharePoint Online sometimes returns "HTTP Error 503. The service is unavailable" and Flow fails

    @Ingrid me too same problem, any possible solutions anyone?

  • Ingrid Profile Picture
    Ingrid 34 on at
    Re: SharePoint Online sometimes returns "HTTP Error 503. The service is unavailable" and Flow fails

    @ltduHave you any solution found? I have the same problem.

  • ltdu Profile Picture
    ltdu 8 on at
    Re: SharePoint Online sometimes returns "HTTP Error 503. The service is unavailable" and Flow fails

    I was able to replicate this problem with on-prem SharePoint.

     

    Setup is quite simple: do-until action, set to run for 1 minute, send HTTP request to SP, and 1s delay.

    I manually start this flow, wait several seconds for it to execute couple cycles, and on SharePoint frontend server execute IISRESET.

     

    Same problem - action does not try to repeat request

     

    service_unavailable_3.png

     

  • ltdu Profile Picture
    ltdu 8 on at
    Re: SharePoint Online sometimes returns "HTTP Error 503. The service is unavailable" and Flow fails

    Hi @v-alzhan-msft ,

     

    Thanks for quick response.

     

    Yes, most of the time Flow works without any problems. This error occures in less than 1% of all flow-runs. And it happens at random places. In some flow branches we have sequences of SharePoint actions and it randomly fails on 3rd or 4th one.

  • Re: SharePoint Online sometimes returns "HTTP Error 503. The service is unavailable" and Flow fails

    Hi @ltdu ,

     

    Does the flow would work most of the time and would fail sometimes?

    Could you please share more details about the issue?

     

    Best regards,

    Alice       

     

    Community Support Team _ Alice Zhang
    If this post helps, then please consider Accept it as the solution to help the other members find it more quickly.

Under review

Thank you for your reply! To ensure a great experience for everyone, your content is awaiting approval by our Community Managers. Please check back later.

Helpful resources

Quick Links

Microsoft Kickstarter Events…

Register for Microsoft Kickstarter Events…

Announcing Our 2025 Season 1 Super Users!

A new season of Super Users has arrived, and we are so grateful for the daily…

Announcing Forum Attachment Improvements!

We're excited to announce that attachments for replies in forums and improved…

Leaderboard

#1
WarrenBelz Profile Picture

WarrenBelz 145,475

#2
RandyHayes Profile Picture

RandyHayes 76,287

#3
Pstork1 Profile Picture

Pstork1 64,767

Leaderboard

Featured topics