SharePoint Alerts retirement

Let me share a scenario that truly defies belief. Honestly, I’m still reeling from what unfolded in a recent customer meeting. Allow me to walk you through this cringe-worthy experience, step by step—humor included, because you must laugh to keep from crying! If I’m somehow misrepresenting the latest functionality, I’m begging for a reality check!

Scenario: Transitioning a customer from classic alerts to rules for a wonderfully basic list

• First, I demonstrated that you now need three separate alerts to replicate the classic “Anything Changes” alert for the list. So, we set up three test rules: Item added, Item changed, and Item deleted.
• I added two new items to trigger the “item added” rule.
• I clicked the “Go to item” button, full of hope and anticipation… only to land on the ENTIRE LIST! Seriously?!

The entire premise is lost if the end user is left playing a bizarre game of “Where’s Waldo?” just to spot the new item. This alert is, in every sense of the word, completely useless.

To top it off, the “Go to item” button is a masterclass in misnomer. Let’s be honest, it should read, “Go to the list and try your luck finding the new item.”

• Undeterred, I modified an item to trigger the “item changed” email.
• The email proudly announced an item had changed, featuring the same optimistic “Go to item” button.
• And, once again, I was whisked away to the ENTIRE LIST!!!

How on earth is a user supposed to figure out which item was changed? I would even settle for not knowing the specifics of what changed—just please send me to the actual item!

Let’s address the elephant in the room: Power Automate is not an acceptable replacement! Unless you have a master’s degree in Power Automate engineering, you’ll be lucky to get anything even remotely functional, let alone as simple and intuitive as the old alerts.

This needs to be fixed—urgently!