Do until loop sends all emails at once after flow times out

[Anonymous]

Hi

In the middle of my flow i have following logic:

1. Create item on secondary sharepoint list with simple unique "password" which is ID with some text (f.e. pass12) from first, main sharepoint list.

2. Send email with 1 button option to requestor - he is asked to fill the microsoft form, and then confirm action by clicking the button inside email.

Then I have another flow for submitting this answers to the item created at secondary list. It is quered by this specific password and it is working fine.

3. Then, in first flow, I have check if requestor actually fill the form - he could click the button without filling the form.

If he does everything well, the flow updates item. If he didnt fill the form, or enter wrong pass in form, but confirm by clicking the button inside email, flow enters the loop where 3.1 send next email alike with also info about possible errors 3.2 wait for click the button 3.3 check item if it is updated. The loop is running until the item is proper updated.

The problem is it works fine when I tested it. But yesterday, two seperate flows timed out (they were running more than 30 days), and they sent 60 (as limit count in do until action) emails to requestor in 2 minutes:

It was so bad reputational for me, as requestors are serious bussines partners. 

Do you know how to fix that ? I know it is a bit complicated, but I don't know where to find answer at this time

Thank you

[rimatos · Accepted solution]

Hi @Anonymous ,

Looking at the Flow and the issue you presented, and since the e-mails were sent although the flow had timed out, i believe the issue might be in one of the actions after the e-mail is sent.

The reason the e-mail was sent these 60 times is the effect of this action being inserted inside the Do Until action loop. As such my recommendation would be to change your logic in a way that the e-mail is sent outside of this loop (e.g. before the loop), otherwise this issue might occur to you again.

An alternative for this would be to create a separate flow to evaluate the response of the requester once he clicks in the button, and construct your logic from there.

Hope this information has helped you in any way!

Regards,

Ricardo