Looping through Groups Takes a Lot of Time

[carlom_iptech]

I can't understand why a flow likes this takes 5 hours. This is for 39 groups that generally have a single Planner plan. This is something like 4000 tasks across all plans. What is causing this to run so long?

[creativeopinion]

@carlom_iptech It's never a good idea to nest List and Get actions (eg. Get Items, List Plans for a Group, List Task, List Buckets, List Rows Present in a table etc) inside an Apply to Each action. You want to run these actions OUTSIDE of an Apply to Each loop—once. This way you are only "fetching" the items (aka Items, Plans, Tasks, buckets, rows etc) once. 

Then, using a Filter Array action, you can to filter out the items returned—not needing to fetching the items again. Also, the amount of nested Apply to Each actions is an issue in your flow. You'll need to adjust your flow logic. 

It's always a good idea to take your flow step by step—run a test and troubleshoot and understand the logic of your flow so you can adjust it if needed. Tying to build an entire flow then run a test isn't ideal. 

If you can provide more insight as to what you are trying to do—it would be a lot easier to provide recommendations. In the meantime, you might find these YT Tutorials helpful.

Are you using the Microsoft Power Automate Filter Array Action wrong?

In this video tutorial I’ll show you 3 practical ways to use the Filter Array action and how to use it properly.

1️⃣ Cross-Referencing Data

2️⃣ Filtering by Key

3️⃣ Substring Matching

Did you know that the Condition action has a limit of 10 conditions? Although it might look like the Filter Array action can only accept one condition—this is not true. By using the advanced mode you can enter multiple conditions into a Filter Array action with an expression.

IN THIS VIDEO:

✅ 3 Ways to Use the Filter Array Action

✅ How to use the Scope Action to Group Actions

✅ How to Check the Number of Items returned from a Filter Array Action

✅ How to Cross-Reference Data in Excel with a SharePoint List

✅ How the Filter Array Action Works

✅ How to Access the Dynamic Content from a Filter Array Action

✅ How to Filter Items by a Key

✅ How to Filter Items by Matching a Substring

✅ How to Use Multiple Conditions in a Filter Array Action

3 Mistakes YOU 🫵 are Making with the Apply to Each Action in your Microsoft Power Automate Flow

In this video tutorial I’ll go over how to avoid these common mistakes when using the Apply to Each action in a Power Automate flow:

1️⃣ Looping through a Single Item

2️⃣ Creating Unnecessary Nested Loops

3️⃣ Looping through an Unfiltered Array

At the end of the video I share a few helpful insights when it comes to using the Apply to Each action in your flow.

IN THIS VIDEO:

✅ How to avoid the Apply to Each action with a single item array

✅ How to use the item() function to access dynamic content in an array

✅ How to prevent unnecessary nested Apply to Each action loops

✅ How to use the Select action

✅ How to convert an array to a string with the Select action

✅How to use the Filter Query field

✅ How to count the number of items in an array

✅ How to use a condition control

✅ How to use the concurrency control

✅ How to set a top count

✅ How to use Compose actions for troubleshooting

5 Power Automate Troubleshooting FAQs and Helpful Tips for Creating Better Flows

In this Power Automate tutorial, I explore 5 frequently asked questions that pop up when troubleshooting a flow. If you’d like to to level up your Power Automate flow skills and learn how to troubleshoot your Power Automate flow—this tutorial is for you!

IN THIS VIDEO:

✅ How to troubleshoot a false Condition action result

✅ How to get dynamic content when it isn’t selectable from the list of dynamic content

✅ How to troubleshoot an Apply to Each action that isn’t looping through

✅ How to troubleshoot a skipped Apply to Each action

✅ How to troubleshoot a Filter Query

✅ How to use a SharePoint yes/no column in a Filter Query

✅ How to use Compose actions to troubleshoot a Power Automate flow

✅ How to troubleshoot multiple emails being sent

✅ How to troubleshoot multiple Teams messages

Hope this helps!

If I helped you solve your problem—please mark my post as a solution ✅.
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

[carlom_iptech]

I'm not sure I follow. Each Group contains a list of Planners. Each Planner under a group contains a list of Tasks, Assignments, and Buckets. I can't avoid some nesting, right? 

When I break out the Get and List actions out of the Apply for each, the variables go out of scope so I can't reference the Ids.

I watched the videos you linked, but I don't think it's the same situation. Rewatching.

What am I missing.

[creativeopinion]

@carlom_iptech Can you provide more insight as to what you'd like your flow to do. You can make your flow run more efficiently by adjusting the logic of your flow. I don't have enough information based on the screenshot you've shared. If you could share more about what your flow is trying to accomplish I could provide some recommendations.

You will still require Apply to each actions. However, as I've mentioned above in my original post:

It's never a good idea to nest List and Get actions (eg. Get Items, List Plans for a Group, List Task, List Buckets, List Rows Present in a table etc) inside an Apply to Each action. You want to run these actions OUTSIDE of an Apply to Each loop—once. This way you are only "fetching" the items (aka Items, Plans, Tasks, buckets, rows etc) once.

[carlom_iptech]

I'm pulling a snapshot of all Planner data.

To pull Plans, you need a list of the Group Ids. To pull Tasks for each Plan, you need the Ids of the Plans. How do you do that outside of the loops?

[VictorIvanidze]

This task is not for Power Automate.

Did you see this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mqGFbIGpCcw

and this great comment:

"...after using this flow for a while I get the following error: Your flow has exceeded its Power Platform Requests."

[creativeopinion]

@carlom_iptech Can you clarify if you only want to return tasks you are assigned to or are you looking to pull all tasks in all plans of every group you belong to?

If you are looking to pull all tasks in all plans, are you only looking to pull a list of tasks that are incomplete?

Do all groups you belong to contain plans? If there are only certain groups that you want to return plans for—it's recommended to filter out those groups first before looping through them.

[carlom_iptech]

This to export all data available for analysis. @VictorIvanidze's link is more relevant to what I am trying to do, but he pointed out a comment that makes a good point. Even at this state, I'm running into issues of the actions being on the high side.