'Add_a_row_into_a_table' failed - same flow, same target file, different SharePoint site for File Created trigger

[Luber]

This is weird. I was asked to help another team with automating a simple task: update a spreadsheet when a file is added to a folder. They shared the folder on their SharePoint site, and I could add/delete files there, but when I tried to connect to it in Flow, no dice. Later, I asked to be added as a member of the group. In the meantime, I copied and recreated the folder & file structure on my own team's SP site, and built and tested the flow - all good.

Today, they added me as a member (with "Edit" privvies - should I have asked for "Full Control"?), and I just edited the flow to change the file and folder locations. When I add a file to the folder on their SP site, it triggers and goes to the end but fails at the Add a Table step, saying it's a missing or invalid argument or bad format. Exact same everything except locations. Here's the really odd part; if keep the trigger location in my own folder, it will still update the sheet in their folder, so I know that the inputs to the Add a Row are OK. On inspection, the values are identical in each case.

Is this a permissions problem or...?

[v-litu-msft]

Hi @Luber,

If you are only assigned access to a file, you will not be able to access the file when you move the file to another folder.
If you are a member of this group now, you can also access it normally.
You mentioned the values are identical in each case.
So this Excel table is not fixed, is it?

If the Excel table value is dynamic, you should use Get tables action to get the table name, actually a string of code, then put the file identifier to extract them:

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

[Luber]

@v-litu-msft Thanks, but I think that's not the solution. The table is fixed:

Name: Cell_Biology

Columns: Project #, Asset Name, Asset URL, Thumbnail URL

I'm just adding a row with another set of these 4 values onto an existing table when a new asset file is added to a folder. It works fine when I copied the files and folders from their SharePoint site to mine.

It also works fine when I add the asset file to the folder on my SP site and update the table in the Excel sheet on their site.

When I add the file to their SP site, it triggers the flow and everything runs as normal until it gets to to the Add Row to Table step, where it fails with an apparently incorrect error message - "missing, invalid, or wrong format" - but I can see that none of these are true, as the data is exactly the same in each case.

[Luber · Accepted solution]

I figured it out; because the folder in their site is buried several levels deeper, the path length to the asset file is too long. I used it in a text formula "hyperlink" and it exceeds the 255 character limit. This I suppose can be rectified by changing their file structure, but the thumbnail URL that the system generates is a random string of 1,361 characters! So I immediately gave up trying to put that into a hyperlink. How many more years must we suffer with the 255 character limit? And why on earth can't MS generate a reasonably short thumbnail URL? MS invented the modern spreadsheet, but Google has figured all this out in G Sheets. Ay ay ay. Thanks anyway.

[Luber]

Workaround: I used Create Sharing Link to generate a short URL to the file, which works in the hyperlink() formula for Excel.

[Kaifee]

But for me the File is not too deep

Still getting same error 

Please help