"When a task is assigned to me" trigger not working as expected

[bowieben]

Hi, we have a flow setup where a second user can be delegated to also be assigned to any task when it is assigned to someone. We use this to ensure that work is picked up by someone else if the original user is out of the office. The trigger is "When a task is assigned to me".

This has worked fine up until this week.

Now, it not only re-assigns any new tasks, but any tasks that have already been assigned prior to the flow being switched on.

Is this an error? It didn't do this before.

Thanks

[srduval]

Was it switched off for awhile and recently reactivated? If so, the trigger is playing catch-up.  Flow doesn't ignore trigger events while it's off, it queues them up to be rerun with automated trigger actions

[bowieben]

Ah, right OK. Yes, it is turned on and off to be used when someone is out of the office. I didn't realise it worked in this way.

I am sure that it didn't do this before though. I have always had a few tasks assigned to me, but when I have turned the flow on it has only delegated any newly assigned tasks.

Do you know of a better way to delegate new tasks to another user when out of the office? It is one of our real issues with Planner; that there is no way of anyone knowing if you are assigning work to someone who is not there to pick it up.

I thought I had found a good solution with this!

Thanks

[srduval]

For New Tasks that are assigned as they are created

you could try catching an auto reply assuming they set their out of office, you could have the a when task is created you could send an email and have that email include some details about the task so it makes sense why your emailing them something and the task id in the subject line so you can use it later. Then have another flow watching for an auto reply email and if one comes in extract the task id from the subject and assign it to someone else or email the manager to reassign to someone else. 

for existing tasks newly assigned, until MS comes out with a when task is assigned to anyone trigger , you'll have to have a recurring flow that loops through tasks, but the email option doesn't really work here. 

You could try for both processes assuming calendars are marked when out of office and marked as out all day, the find meeting times action, and set the constraints so that only 1 meeting time can be returned for the day the task is assigned.