Power Automate Flow Troubleshooting Checklist | elijah.ai

Power Automate Flow Troubleshooting Checklist

Why this exists: A flow fails. You stare at the run history. Where do you even start? This checklist keeps you from spinning.

For you if: You build or support Power Automate flows and sometimes hit a wall when something breaks.

Ground truth: Built from Troubleshoot a cloud flow, Employ robust error handling, and Troubleshoot cloud flows.

Before You Dig In

[ ] When did it last succeed? If it worked yesterday and failed today, something changed. Update? Connector change? Data change?
[ ] Is it the first run or a rerun? First run failures are often config. Reruns that used to work point to data or permissions.
[ ] Which step failed? Don't guess. Open the run, look at the red step. That's your starting point.

[ ] What does it actually say? "Unauthorized" vs "BadRequest" vs "InvalidTemplate" mean different things.
[ ] Copy the error code if there is one. Sometimes a quick search turns up the fix.
[ ] Common codes: 401/403 = authentication; 400/404 = configuration; 500/502 = temporary. See Troubleshoot a cloud flow.

[ ] Did the previous step pass the right data? Look at the outputs of the step right before the failure. Null? Wrong format? Wrong property name?
[ ] Dynamic content from a previous run? If the flow was edited or the trigger payload changed, old dynamic content can point to the wrong place.
[ ] Expressions with typos? A missing parenthesis or wrong function name will blow up. Check items('For_each') vs items('For_Each') (case matters).

[ ] Connection valid? Go to Data → Connections. Is the connector for this action still connected? Sometimes they expire or get revoked.
[ ] Service account / run-as user: Does the user running the flow still have access to the target system (SharePoint, Dataverse, etc.)?
[ ] Licenses: Some actions need Premium. If the flow used to run under a different user, check who's running it now.

[ ] Too many requests? Connectors (SharePoint, HTTP, Outlook, etc.) have limits. "429" or "throttled" means slow down. Add a delay, reduce parallelism, or schedule retries.
[ ] Concurrent runs: If multiple flows hit the same system, you can hit limits. Stagger or batch.

[ ] Empty array or null? A "For each" on an empty list can behave oddly. Use "Condition" to check if the array has items before looping.
[ ] Schema change? Did SharePoint add/remove a column? Did the API response structure change? Your "Parse JSON" or dynamic content might be out of date.

Symptom	Try this first
Flow runs but does nothing useful	Check "Configure run after" on actions. Maybe the step is set to run only on failure or skip.
Intermittent failures	Add retry where supported. Many connector actions have retry settings (action → ... → Settings). Use Run after for error paths. See Employ robust error handling.
"Action failed" with no detail	Check run details in Power Automate, or Power Platform Admin Center (PPAC) → Analytics → Power Automate for tenant-level view.
Trigger not firing	Re-check trigger conditions. For "When an item is created," ensure the list/library hasn't changed.

Connector outage: Check Microsoft 365 Service Health or Power Platform status.
Custom connector / API: The external service might be down or returning errors. Test the API directly (Postman, etc.).
Premium features: If you're hitting limits of HTTP + Premium or Process Advisor, you may need to talk to your admin about capacity or licensing.