‘when a new item is created’ flow running over historical items instead of just the new item

[Nick_k]

I have a new PA flow that is based on an existing SharePoint list, it’s trigger is ‘when a new item is created’. The flow basically updates fields in the list depending on the selection of a choice field. The problem I’m having is that when the flow is triggered when a new item is submitted is that the flow seems to run over all historical entries. I don’t know if the flow would keep running until the end of the list if it wasn’t stopped. I don’t want this to happen and I don’t know why it is happening. Can anyone suggest how to stop this??

A new entry to the list is submitted via an InfoPath form and when ‘save’ is clicked it takes you to the list in edit mode with the new entry visible. The list is in classic experience.

For the 'update item' actions I also had to place dynamic entries for all fields otherwise if left blank the flow would overwrite the field with blank / no data. 

[DamoBird365]

Hi @Nick_k 

Can you identify the trigger you mention ?

Is it "when an item is created"?

This should only run as intended, so I wonder if you have further actions where you get items in order to then update all of the items on your list?

When it comes to update item, you only need to supply dynamic values for fields where they are mandatory or the existing data will be overwritten with null/blank.  Hopefully that meets with your findings.

If you can share more details on your Cloud Flow, like the trigger and action , I can try and advise on why it is running over all of your list items.

If this post helps, then please consider Accept it as the solution to help the other members find it more quickly.
Cheers,
Damien

P.S. take a look at my new blog here

[Nick_k]

Hi Damien

Thanks for your response. Yes the trigger is 'when an item is created' SharePoint. I don't believe there are any 'get items' or the like that would call the whole list. Here is a screen shot of the flow. There are about 20 switch conditions. When I was developing the Flow there may have been a 'get items' at some stage to try and get the Flow to do what I want it to do. There are multiple updates for the same list item as they are dependant on the previous update. None of the fields appear to be required so I'm not sure when data was getting overwritten. I had to put a dynamic value for nearly all fields for each update. Also attached is a screenshot of how many items it ran over. 

[DamoBird365]

Hi @Nick_k 

It's quite hard to tell you why, other than your logic must not be correct.  So really you need to look back at the history of your flow to try and understand why and how it is updating many items.  You show an excel sheet in your screenshots above but your flow screenshots make no reference to that.

From what I see above, if an item is created, it updates an item with an increment, creates a variable called permit type and based on a switch if it is equal to demolition it updates two further items with a delay in between.  As there are no create new item actions there is no reason for this flow to trigger itself.  When you use update item you must specify the item ID, so I cannot understand why it would overwrite all items as you have suggested based on what I can see above.

My suggestion would be to look at the history and then if you have any apply to each actions, take a look at how many times they run (expand in history).  If you feed the apply to each the wrong data, it will run the number of times unique items appear which is not often the desired outcome.  It's a common mistake to make but it takes practice to spot and realise.

Then if none of that applys to you, share the history and try to show where it might be over writting all of your items, so that we can make a change to the overall logic.

If this post helps, then please consider Accept it as the solution to help the other members find it more quickly.
Cheers,
Damien

P.S. take a look at my new blog here

[Nick_k]

Hi Damian

I'm pretty sure the logic is correct. The trigger is 'when a new item is created' and there are no get items. The IDs for the item is the same so i'm not sure what is going on. I might have to recreate the flow from scratch and see if the same things happens.

Thanks for your advice.

Regards

Nick

[Nick_k]

no i have not resolved this as of yet. my next plan was to re-create the flow. but it is quite big and time consuming.