Forum Discussion
Help! SharePoint is mixing up my document metadata and it's driving me crazy 😅
Hey everyone! I'm hoping someone here has seen this weird issue before because it's starting to really mess with our approval workflows.
What's happening (the really frustrating part)
So I built this document management system using SharePoint + Power Automate for our approval process. It was working great for months, but now SharePoint has started doing this really weird thing where it's mixing up metadata between different documents.
Like, User A uploads a document, but SharePoint says it was uploaded by User B. Or a document from our other office suddenly shows up as being from another country. It's like SharePoint is getting confused and grabbing random metadata from other files!
Here's what I'm seeing with the metadata fields:
- Wrong uploader names - The metadata shows the wrong person uploaded it (but version history is correct)
- Department mix-ups - Documents are getting tagged with the wrong office/department
- Date weirdness - Upload dates keep changing on existing documents
My setup (in case it matters)
- SharePoint Online with custom document library
- Power Automate flows that kick off approval workflows when docs are uploaded
- Multiple users uploading files throughout the day
- Custom metadata fields for uploader, department, dates, etc.
Since we use these documents for approvals, having wrong metadata is really bad news. Approvals are going to the wrong people, our audit trail is messed up, and people are starting to not trust the system.
Has anyone else run into this metadata inheritance/mixing problem?
A few specific things I'm curious about:
- Could this be a content type issue? Like, are multiple content types somehow sharing metadata?
- Is Power Automate maybe processing things too fast and causing conflicts?
- Could it be some kind of caching problem in SharePoint?
- Is this related to users uploading documents at the same time?
What I've already tried
- Checked version history (it's correct there)
- Looked at my Power Automate flows
- Had users clear their browser cache
- Double-checked permissions
Really just looking for anyone who's been through something similar! Specifically:
- What caused it for you?
- How did you fix it?
- Any tips to prevent it from happening again?
- Should I maybe restructure how my document library is set up?
This worked perfectly for months and now it's like SharePoint has developed multiple personality disorder with my metadata 🤦♂️
Any ideas or war stories would be super helpful! Thanks in advance!
Thanks in advance !
2 Replies
I do know that if you are using the update properties in Power Automate, if you are not populating all the columns it will chose whatever columns it wants to.
That's why we create custom views to use with the workflow, so we don't need to worry about columns we aren't changing.
Good luck.
Considering you're using the default SharePoint file upload (no custom solutions or document sets), here’s how you can troubleshoot and resolve the metadata mix-up issue:
Test with Single File Uploads
Start by uploading one file at a time and observe if the metadata is applied correctly.
If single uploads work fine, the issue is likely due to multiple uploads triggering your Power Automate flow at the same time, causing metadata conflicts.
Add a Delay in Power AutomateOpen your flow and add a “Delay” action right after the trigger.
This gives SharePoint time to fully register the file before the flow starts processing metadata.
Enable Concurrency ControlIn the trigger settings of your flow:
Click the ellipsis (...) > Settings
Turn on Concurrency Control
Set Degree of Parallelism to 1
This ensures only one instance of the flow runs at a time, preventing overlapping updates.
Reindex the Document LibraryGo to Library Settings > Advanced Settings > Reindex Document Library
This forces SharePoint to refresh its internal index and can help resolve metadata display issues.--------------------------------------------------------
If this helped, please mark it as the answer!
