Forum Discussion
Duplicate responses in Excel
I've been using Forms to create a Sharepoint list for some months now. Just in the past few days I've had an issue with one submission creating two or more response ID's in the Excel spreadsheet synced with Forms which drives my Power Automate flow to create the item in Sharepoint.
Has anyone experienced this? It seems to be a sync timing issue perhaps but I have no idea how to fix it.
Here is one example:
the first two responses are exactly the same submission. Both have the same start/completed times but the sync to Excel created two different response ID's. The third response 1285 also tagged at exactly the same start time as the completed time on response 1283 and 1284.
Can anyone shed some light to this issue?
kellyhickman14096 Thanks for the clarification, Since you’re already using the right trigger from Microsoft Forms, and still seeing two different response IDs for a single submission, it definitely sounds like a backend sync glitch or timing issue between Forms and the Power Automate trigger, it’s intermittent and could be tied to latency or a momentary hiccup in Microsoft’s services
Unfortunately, since the duplicates aren’t consistent and Forms itself is generating the IDs, there’s no solid fix yet. Until Microsoft addresses it on their end, your best bet is to build a small check inside your flow, maybe compare timestamps or user input to spot and skip duplicates before SharePoint items are created.
hopefully Microsoft improves this behavior soon
7 Replies
The best way to avoid this is by using the "When a new response is submitted" trigger directly from Microsoft Forms in Power Automate, instead of watching the Excel file. That method is more stable and does not rely on Excel syncs. If you still need to use Excel, try including something unique in your form, like a timestamp or user email, and set your flow to check if that data already exists before creating anything in SharePoint. Also, keep the Excel file closed while syncing being open in multiple places can cause extra updates and mess with the sync process.
Marcus-Apps4rent Thank you for responding, I truly appreciate it. I do use the trigger you mention in Power automate, my issue is that the form response is sending two separate response ID's for the exact same submission to my flow, which then creates two sharepoint list items, as is expected behavior. I am confused as to why the Form creates two separate response ID's for the same submission. My suspicion is that it has something to do with the timing of the sync from the Forms to the flow, perhaps the sync experiences latency at certain times. This duplication doesn't happen all the time. I guess I'll just have to watch it and delete dupes as they come in. I feel like there is no clear fix here.
kellyhickman14096 Thanks for the clarification, Since you’re already using the right trigger from Microsoft Forms, and still seeing two different response IDs for a single submission, it definitely sounds like a backend sync glitch or timing issue between Forms and the Power Automate trigger, it’s intermittent and could be tied to latency or a momentary hiccup in Microsoft’s services
Unfortunately, since the duplicates aren’t consistent and Forms itself is generating the IDs, there’s no solid fix yet. Until Microsoft addresses it on their end, your best bet is to build a small check inside your flow, maybe compare timestamps or user input to spot and skip duplicates before SharePoint items are created.
hopefully Microsoft improves this behavior soon
Not sure how to edit, but I wanted to indicate the screenshot is the Excel spreadsheet retrieved when I click on View Responses.
