Error: Http request failed: the content was not a valid JSON. Error while parsing JSON: 'Unexpected character encountered while parsing value: R. Path '', line 0, position 0.'

[E_S]

I am trying to write a flow and I get this error:

Http request failed: the content was not a valid JSON. Error while parsing JSON: 'Unexpected character encountered while parsing value: R. Path '', line 0, position 0.'

The flow it's really simple, variables and an execute query.

I am trying to get texts from power app and use them to modify a string variable in power automate. Then I use the modified string variable as a query. 

I start with a trigger from power apps and I specify what I want to save as a variable and use in power automate:

Then I have a variable to save my query as a string and I use the previous variable to modify it (I find it in the required fields). 

Here it seems that everything works, but I do not understand what  is "Impostavariabile_valore". 

The error appears in the last step, when I try to execute the query

Can you give me some advice? 

[Anonymous]

I'm getting this same error as well. My flow runs successfully 100 times a day. With maybe 1 failure every other day. Can't identify why, the same error as above, when I re-trigger the failed run, it works just fine. Totally new error. 

[AnnRGM]

Hi @Anonymous 

Would you mind sharing the dates of your failed runs? I'm working with Microsoft on this but I haven't had any failures since Nov 7.

[Anonymous]

Maybe it is fixed now since it hasn't occurred since 11/9. However, there have been 2-day gaps in the past.

On 1 flow, I've had errors on 11/8, 11/7 (2 times) and 11/4 (2 times).

On my other flow, I've had errors 11/9 (2 times), 11/8, 11/7, 11/4, and 11/3.

[AnnRGM]

Update:

The ticket that I submitted to Microsoft on 11/7/2022 is now with their product group, as of 11/11/2022.

I encourage anyone experiencing this problem to submit a ticket to Microsoft and to post on this thread: 

1. The MS engineer said additional tickets would help them understand the scope of the problem.
2. I haven't experienced this problem since 11/7 and @Anonymous experienced it on 11/9. Has this problem magically resolved itself or do we all still need to be closely monitoring flows?

[Anonymous]

@AnnRGM I just checked my flows and there have not been any failures since 11/9. It seems to be resolved based on the feedback here 😁

[nerfherder]

@AnnRGM magical indeed! All quiet here

[Anonymous]

Thank you @AnnRGM !

[AnnRGM]

Update from an email I received on 11/17/2022:

From the Microsoft product team: We have fixed this issue in the codebase and the fix is pending to be shipped

[binki-dcx]

Whoa, thanks for the update!

It will be hard to notice it because the issue does not happen often. But hopefully we will get a clearer, more specific error next this error would have happened!

[stnrn9]

I happened to notice 4 of the flows on different days at different times got failed some of the responses said resubmitting as the option when I tried resubmitting it. It's a success.

[Anonymous]

When were your failures? I just checked and still haven't seen any since 11/9.

[stnrn9]

4 of them are in range between 11/3 to 11/9. Nothing after 9 but I didn't get any notification about the failure. 

[AnnRGM]

I also checked and have had no errors since 11/7/2022.

Here is an update I received from Microsoft yesterday, 11/30/2022:

"Regarding the ticket we have opened with the Product Team this seems to have a two-part fix coming. One of the fixes should be going live today based on the communication I have received. 

The other part of the fix is still pending release as it seems to be more of a management issue of the background process in the flow and how communication is being handled in the digital space when the flow is running. The second part of the "fix" seems to be more of the Product Team ensuring the fix maintains stability."

[nerfherder]

@AnnRGM thanks for the assist with this. I don't want to make a mountain out of a molehill, especially with so many millions of successes this year in comparison, but boy must it be annoying to get that back as a response.

None of our custom error monitoring solutions have fired for this cause; conclusion, they fixed and are hoping we can all just move on from whatever happened/didn't happen here 🙂

[binki-dcx]

@nerfherder 

I think the response given to @AnnRGM  is very positive. It means that Microsoft acknowledged that the “Error while parsing JSON” was being returned to the user incorrectly, that they identified 2 bugs, and one of them should be fixed by now. Hopefully, that means that, going forward, we will start seeing different errors that actually make sense instead of this error. When we see those errors, there will not be any obvious connection to this error even though, a month ago, those errors would have showed up as this one.

Not seeing errors for a while is more likely to mean that the condition triggering this error was a race condition or timeout condition. These normally wouldn’t happen, but if the system is either loaded enough and less responsive or too responsive or just right, that would increase the likelihood of the condition being triggered. So it seems that the conditions were more favorable towards triggering errors during early November this year while these same conditions normally are not present.

I’m looking forward to my next Outlook connector error because it might show the root cause of what this error is (though I won’t be able to prove that it is the same condition because the JSON error gives too little information). Though, at the same time, I hope it doesn’t happen again because I know some people have critical processes relying on the Outlook connector working reliably. It hasn’t occurred yet, so that is good in one way!