Monitoring and Troubleshooting Flows

Despite your best efforts, at times, there will be flows that fail. It could be something as simple as an incorrect or expired credential or something more challenging to troubleshoot, such as a third-party vendor updating their interface and rendering your process invalid.

In this chapter, we’re going to review some of the troubleshooting features and capabilities of Power Automate. These tips and techniques will help you troubleshoot failing flows. We’ll cover the following:

• Monitoring flows
• Reviewing email error reports
• Resolving authentication errors
• Examining detailed errors with the flow checker
• Understanding error codes
• Finding additional resources

By the end of this chapter, you’ll understand how to troubleshoot common errors and know where to go for additional help.

Let’s go!

Monitoring flows

Throughout this book, you’ve seen examples of the run history for a particular flow. In this section, we’ll review the run history of a flow that is experiencing errors and troubleshoot it.

For this example, we’ll use one of the purchase request approvals that we created previously, which relies upon checking for a user’s manager. To experience this error, you’ll need to submit the flow as a user that does not have a manager. In this example, we’ll use the Procurement Two-Stage Approval from Chapter 10, Working with Multiple Approvals.

If you are not using a trial tenant or do not have access to an account that meets this criteria, you may need to ask an administrator to create and license a user account that meets this requirement.

Viewing the run history

The run history will display a log of all the times that a flow has executed over the previous 28 days. To view the run history, follow these...

Reviewing email error reports

When you are the creator or owner of a flow and it experiences an error, Power Automate will generate an email and send it to you. An example of an email error report is displayed in the following screenshot:

Figure 19.7: Email notification of a failed flow run

The message will contain information similar to what is displayed in the details panel of a run history error, as shown in the previous section. Clicking on the Fix my flow button will direct you to the Edit your flow page.

Resolving authentication errors

One of the most common flow errors is due to an authentication failure. Consider the following error report email:

Figure 19.8: Flow authentication error

This error can occur when multifactor authentication is newly enabled for an account, your credentials have changed, or the user account used in a connection is no longer valid.

Common authentication error messages include the term Unauthorized or may display an error code of 401 or 403. These error codes generally indicate that the username and password combination is incorrect or that there is some other security issue. If the username and password are correct, a 403 error code may mean that the account you’re attempting to use to access a resource does not have the required permissions.

To resolve authentication errors, sign in to Power Automate, edit the flow, and then update the connection settings. Look for an action with an error and expand the title bar to update...

Examining detailed errors with the flow checker

The flow checker is a verification and troubleshooting tool built into the Power Automate interface. It can be used during the development and troubleshooting process to help identify potential issues. The flow checker continuously evaluates your flows for potential performance, reliability, and configuration issues.

If the flow checker determines that there is a potential error, a red bubble is displayed next to the Flow checker icon:

Figure 19.10: Observing a notification on the Flow checker icon

To review the errors, warnings, or issues detected by the flow checker, click Flow checker. The details will be displayed in the details fly-out pane. In this example, the checker displays an error that indicates a required field has not been configured:

Figure 19.11: Examining an error in the flow checker

Update the items that the indicator identifies. You can then save the flow and re-run the checker by clicking...

Understanding error codes

You may also encounter other errors when interacting with services. Usually, Power Automate will return the actual error code it encounters when accessing a service. Here are some example error codes and some potential causes:

Error code	Details	Recommendation
401, 403	Unauthorized. This is usually due to incorrect credentials, but it could also indicate that an account does not have the correct permissions.	Verify that the account credentials are correct and that the account has access to the resource.
400	Bad request. This error usually means that the type of data being submitted is of the incorrect type or format (such as sending...

Finding additional resources

There are a number of resources available to help troubleshoot and resolve Power Automate issues:

Resource	URL
Power Automate documentation	https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/power-automate/
Power Automate troubleshooting	https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/troubleshoot/power-platform/power-automate/welcome-power-automate
Power Automate community	https://powerusers.microsoft.com/t5/Microsoft-Power-Automate/ct-p/MPACommunity
Power Automate user group	https://www.automateug.com/home

Table 19.2: Additional Power...

Summary

In this chapter, you learned how to use some of the troubleshooting resources available in Power Automate, including the run history and email error reports. Additionally, you learned how the flow checker can help identify potential problems in your flows. Finally, you learned about other resources available to help expand your knowledge and skills with Power Automate.

Congratulations on making it all the way to the end of the book! We hope you walk away with a greater understanding of how Power Automate can help improve your productivity, and that you remember these real-world examples of how to make Power Automate part of your toolbox.

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