"When an item is created or modified" trigger doesn't work the first time

[Anonymous]

Hello there!

My situation: I found the template "Book a new calendar event after a new SharePoint List item is created" and used it as reference. It uses the "When an item is created" trigger and works perfectly. I also used the "When an item is deleted" trigger and that one also worked. But when I use the "When an item is created or modified" trigger, it only runs when I start it twice.

e.g.
I have six items in my list. Then I modify one of them (change some values). After that the flow doesn't get triggered. But when I modify a second item in my list, for some strange reason, the first flow gets triggered and then the second one. It follows that pattern: First one doesn't trigger, second one triggers both.

I found several posts which are about the "created and modified" trigger, but no one wrote about what I experience. Any clues why it won't trigger the first time?

[v-bacao-msft]

Hi @Anonymous,

Could you please share a full screenshot of the configuration of your flow?

First of all, I want to know the configuration of the two actions in if yes. Is the list of the update item configuration and the list of the triggers the same?

If it is the same, Flow may loop, because Flow will be triggered again after the update item, and then the loop is repeated. Please make sure that the two lists are not the same one.

I tested the "When an item is created or modified" on my side and used the template you provided, but it didn't appear that the first Flow would not trigger.

Could you provide Flow's Run history, probably because of a delay, which can lead to such a situation.

In addition, you could test "When an item is created or modified" separately. Only one Compose action is configured below. Wait a few minutes after each change to the item.

If there is no problem you mentioned, I think it should be the configuration of the action in If yes.

It would be helpful if you could post more details and we would provide a proper workaround for you.

Best Regards,

Barry

[GabrielStJohn]

Hey, @Anonymous!

Thank you for posting on the Flow Community Forum! It appears as though @v-bacao-msft would like some more information in order to further assist you properly with your issue. Please share any additional information that was requested in order to decrease the amount of time that it will take for you to be assisted!

Thank you for being an active member of the Flow Community!

-Gabriel
Flow Community Manager

[Anonymous]

Hello Barry,

Thank you for your reply.

You were right, I tried to update the same item I was modifying and I thought that this might be the problem, so I minimized it to the bare bones, to see what would happen.

Looks like that:

Then I modified one item in my list:

And nothing happened (Ignore the old runs. They came when I recreated everything):

I waited for a minute to see if it will trigger delayed, but no.

Then I modified the second item:

And there you go, both runs get triggered. One after the other:

Like I said there is a minute between the modifications of the two items. If I wouldn't modify a second item the first would never trigger. Even though it isn't the same flow I still get the same results, so the problem must be by the trigger event itself.

Then I repeated that several times:

I created a workaround by replacing the edit-dialogue in the list with my own from PowerApps. In my App I started a slightly modified flow in the OnSave event. That's almost the same as when I modifiy a item without replacement.

But this doesn't fix the issue itself.

[swolfsohn]

I am seeing this same behavior across multiple flows. The trigger doesn't seem to go off when I modify one item, but when I modify a second item, both flow runs trigger. It doesn't seem to be an issue every time, but I can't see a pattern in when it does and doesn't happen.

[gsaplontai]

Hello,

I face exactly the same issue and it's quite annoying because I want to use this flow to create documents. Did you found a fix?

THank you,

Gabriel

[Anonymous]

Same issue here. 

very annoying. 

[FlorianTrine]

I am encountering the same issue on a demo tenant.

In order to trigger a workflow on the event "created or modified", I have to edit two different items.

If I edit only the first one, I will wait several minutes without seeing anything happening from the Flow side.

[Anonymous]

Sadly I didn't find a real solution.

The only workaround I found was by replacing the original SharePoint editform with a customized one from PowerApps. In the app you can call your flow with your functions.

But as I said that's not a real solution. I don't want to use a customized app to edit my items.

[Anonymous]

I moved completely to powerapps and manual triggered workflow. Very sad that the MS team has overseen this bug.

[Aaronk21234]

Having the same issue.  Will have to move my trigger from SharePoint "When an item is created or modified" to a PowerApps trigger.

Has something changed?  Is there internal logic to prevent a "When an item is created or modified" infinite loop that is halting or aandoning triggers?  Although I don't want to accidentlly create an infinite loop, I also want the triggers to fire correctly once the loop is handled in the code.  Flow should either reject "...modified" flows that alter the trigger source, or allow looping and require devs to correct as needed.

[LeonV]

Same issue here with "When an item is created or modified" trigger.

[denglish]

I am experiencing this same issue. Is there a corresponding item on the Reported Issues that I can upvote?

[NicoleHarris]

I think this may be a timing thing. I've found that this Flow isn't triggered immediately upon a item being updated/created, but rather that it takes up to 5 minutes (most of the time just a couple seconds to a minute) for the edit/creation to trigger the Flow. That seems to be by the design of Flow.

[FlorianTrine]

Hello NicoleHarris, 

The issue described was not related to a timing thing. Waiting 5 minutes more did not triggering the worklow.

If we waited 10 minutes, 30 minutes or 1hour, the workflow did not start.

We had to edit something else (or the same item a second time) to trigger the workflow.