Approval Loop in Flow

[Anonymous]

Hi,  I have a flow which triggers when a sharepoint item is created or modified.  Upon created an item in the list it is marked as pending.  When the manager approves or declines i want the item to say approved or declined.  However, when i try to do this, I start a loop, as it then thinks the file has been modified and emails the manager again.  Screenshot on the attachment.

[v-xida-msft · Accepted solution]

Hi @Anonymous,

Do you want to get rid of the loop approvals within your flow?

Do you have enable the "Content Approval" option within the List Settings of your SP list?

Further, could you please share a bit more about your SP list?

Based on the screenshot that you provided, I think this issue is related to the "When an item is created or modified" trigger in your flow. When the "Update item" action in your flow executes, the "When an item is created or modified" trigger would be fired again.

In order to get rid of this issue, you could consider take a try to add a Yes/No type column (IsModified) in your SP list, the default value of the IsModified column is No. Then within your flow, before the "Start an approval" action, add a Condition to check if the IsModified column value is equal to No, if yes, send an approval email, if no, do nothing. Then within the "Update Item" action, set the IsModified field value to Yes.

I have made a test on my side, please take a try with the following workaround:

The data structure of my SP list as below:

The Flow's configuration as below:

Best regards,

Kris

[Anonymous]

Require content approval is currently set to NO.

Attached is a screen shot of my list headers and an example from sharepoint.

I'll try adding the column as you auggested, and the condition, and see if that works.

[v-xida-msft]

Hi @Anonymous,

Have you solved your problem?

If you have solved your problem, please go ahead and click “Accept as Solution” so that this thread will be marked for other users to easily identify.

Best regards,

Kris

[Anonymous]

Hi sorry not quite finished yet. I have come across a situation where if an employee wants to go into an exisiting booking, and make changes, then it doesnt sent as the IsModified trick does not kick in.

I think I can sort this by adding an UpdateContext option to the submit button, to change the result of the IsModified data card.

This is a bit of a side project for me, so I can;t always work on it for long periods.

Rick

[v-xida-msft]

Hi @Anonymous，

Just an update -- I have made a test on my side, please take a try with the following workaround:

 Within the Condition action, click "Add in advanced mode", type the following formula:

@or(equals(triggerBody()?['Created'], triggerBody()?['Modified']),equals(triggerBody()?['IsModified'], true))

Within the "Update item" action and "Update item 2" action, set the IsModified field to No.

When the user edits a existing record, they must change the IsModified column value to Yes.

Please check if above solution could achieve your needs.

Best regards,

Kris

[bobandted]

Hi,

This is a little late but I figure I post my solution.  This can be solved using the Last Modified Date of the File.

1. Add a new date/time column LMD

2. When the item is approved / rejected update the LMD to utcNow()

3. When running the flow check if the modified date == LMD.  If so, terminate the flow.

[anonPU]

i have a similar problem with FLOW loops inside an approval flow. the suggestion from @bobandted would be perfect, but the LMD utcNow() time is always a few seconds ahead from the Last-Modified timestamp. Maybe because i have to check the file back in (inside my flow) after the file properties were updated. 

Any other solutions for this loop problem without having the user to change a column by hand everytime they want to modifie a file inside the SPO doc library?

[Ann_DAS]

Hi Kris,

I am having a similar situation here and hope you might provide some insight as well. I have a list that requires approval and it goes something like this: If column x is modified , start approval, update list with approval results, and based on condition go through another approval, update approval with list results and then send email. My flow was looping because updating the list caused another modification so I tried the solution you gave - adding an Is modified field, a condition to trigger the flow and then a change to the field to match the condition.  Unfortunately, the condition always seems to return a false result meaning the flow never gets to the approval stage. What am I missing?

Thanks