Forum Discussion
My update item flow is working but is very slow.
Hello everyone,
I have just started using SharePoint and Power Automate as I am building an equipment rental management tool for my work. I currently have two lists;
- the Equipment list stores information about each device, e.g. model, serial number, and next calibration/service date.
- the Hire Manager list has things like a unique Hire #, Hirer's details, hire start and end date, and equipment hired. I pull the equipment hired (based on serial number) from the Equipment list using a Lookup column that allows multiple selections.
I have made a Power Automate flow that is triggered when an item is created or updated in Hire Manager that checks the calibration/service date for all devices added to the hire to make sure the calibration/service date does not come up before the end of the hire. The flow loops through the equipment and appends any warnings to an array variable which is then updated to a Warnings column in the Hire Manager list.
I finally got all of this working perfectly, and was able to format the Warnings column so any warnings turn bright red, fantastic! The only problem is that it can take 2-3 minutes for this to happen once an item is added or updated. This delay doesn't work because I intend to use the list as a check-in/out system in our office, and need the see the warnings appear right away for them to be effective.
The flow is only taking around 5 seconds to complete, but it seems to only detect the trigger after a significant delay, and then post the update to the List after another delay. Is there any way to speed this up?
Alternatively - is there any way I can bring the calibration/service dates across to the Hire Manager list in a way that allows me to format / use in a formula?
Thanks so much for any help!
Matt
Edited to add a screenshot of the Hire Manager list, the red warnings are what takes a long time to appear after list update:
4 Replies
- Is the equipment list very large? If so, maybe you could use oData filters to reduce the number of items your flow needs to loop through: https://www.spguides.com/power-automate-odata-filter-query/
The equipment list only has 4 items so far while testing, and once fully populated it will have around 60 items, I have Top Count set at 500.
In my test, one of the items in the Hire Manager sheet has 3 x Equipment items selected, which means it goes through the 4 equipment items 3 times each, and this step is the only one that takes any significant time (around 6 seconds, see the flow below).
In any case, the time of the flow (6 seconds) is not significant compared to the delay of 1 - 3 minutes, which seems to be caused by delays between the event and trigger.
- Do you have a premium license for Power Automate? Sounds like it can take up to 5 minutes for those of us that rely on the licensing that comes standard: https://powerusers.microsoft.com/t5/Using-Flows/Latency-or-lag-between-flow-and-sharepoint/m-p/545281
