Skip to content

Let's POWER Automate

From no-code to low-code

Menu
  • Expressions
  • Filters
  • General
  • Problems
  • Triggers
  • Application specific solutions
    • Excel
    • Forms
    • Planner
    • Outlook
    • SharePoint
    • Teams
  • Resources
Menu

3 ways to disable an action or a section of a flow in Power Automate

Posted on February 10, 2021April 14, 2021 by Tom

“How can I temporarily disable an action / a section of my Power Automate flow without deleting the action(s)? I need to debug a flow but I don’t want it to send out emails during the testing.”


Power Automate doesn’t have a simple functionality to disable an action in a flow. There isn’t any checkbox you could check and the action would be skipped. If you need to disable part of a flow, e.g. to not send an email, not create an item, or not post a message, you’ll need a workaround. And this post will offer three of them.

Condition

You can use a ‘Condition’ with fixed values and put the action(s) into one of the branches. If you use for example condition if ‘2 is equal to 1’, the flow will skip all actions in the ‘If yes’ branch.

Power Automate condition to disable action

It’s a solid solution, but you must add the ‘Condition’ to your flow and move the actions there. And if you want to disable multiple sections in your flow you’ll need multiple conditions.

Static result

Another option is to use ‘Static result’ for an action. If you configure an action to provide ‘Static result’, it’ll give you just the result you define. The action won’t do anything else, why should it when it already has the result?

Power Automate static result to disable action

This solution will not skip the action, but it’ll block it from doing anything. It’s applicable only on actions that use some connection and only one by one. You must define the ‘Static result’ for each action you want to disable.

Since it can disable only one action, you should be careful if you don’t need that action’s output later in the flow. In that case you must either define a full, valid result, or disable also the other actions. And that could mean combining multiple approaches from this article.

Configure run after

The third option is to use the ‘Configure run after’ functionality. This configuration allows you to define in which situation an action should run depending on the previous action outcome.

Power Automate run after to disable action

The configuration I use is to run after action ‘is skipped’. It’s the same configuration for the action I want to disable and for the next action.

Power Automate run after is skipped to disable action

The first ‘is skipped’ action will tell the flow to skip the action if the previous actions was not skipped (= if it run correctly). The second ‘is skipped’ on the second action will resume the flow. Since the first action will be skipped, the second action will run after the skipped action.

This solution can be used on a single action, or on multiple actions if you put them inside a ‘Scope’. There’s no limitation to only actions using connections as when using ‘Static result’.

The problem can appear if flow skips the action before. But actions are skipped only when condition is not met or if the previous action fails, and in such cases you can use different ‘run after’ configuration.

Summary

The three solution described above should cover all situations when you need to disable an action or a section of your flow.

Condition is the simplest solution but it’ll complicate your flow. It might be a lot of conditions and a lot of moving actions in and out of the condition.

Static result is a good solution to disable a single action, e.g. send an email or create a file. If you need to disable multiple actions it might be better to use either the condition or run after configuration.

With the run after configuration you can disable whole sections of your flow (if they’re in a ‘Scope’) and it’s easier to manage than many conditions. It is my preferred option when I need to disable any action(s) in my flows.


Do you struggle with the various expressions, conditions, filters, or HTTP requests available in Power Automate?

I send one email per week with a summary of the new solutions, designed to help even non IT people to automate some of their repetitive tasks.

All subscribers have also access to resources like a SharePoint Filter Query cheat sheet or Date expressions cheat sheet.

Zero spam, unsubscribe anytime.

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Now available:

The Ultimate Power Automate expressions cheat sheet
Equip yourself with the tool to translate your thoughts into Power Automate expressions!

Do you struggle with the various expressions, conditions, filters, or HTTP requests available in Power Automate?

I send one email per week with a summary of the new solutions, designed to help even non IT people to automate some of their repetitive tasks.

All subscribers have also access to resources like a SharePoint Filter Query cheat sheet or Date expressions cheat sheet.

Zero spam, unsubscribe anytime.

Hello and welcome!

My name is Tom and I'm a business process automation consultant and Microsoft MVP living in the Czech Republic. I’ve been working with Microsoft technologies for almost 10 years, currently using mainly Power Automate, SharePoint, Teams, and the other M365 tools.

I believe that everyone can automate part of their work with the Power Automate platform. You can achieve a lot by "clicking" the flows in the designer, but you can achieve much more if you add a bit of coding knowledge. And that's what this blog is about.

To make the step from no-code Power Automate flows to low-code flows: using basic coding knowledge to build more complex yet more efficient flows to automate more of your daily tasks.

  • Check if email already exists in Outlook contacts (Power Automate)August 7, 2022
  • Set permissions for a SharePoint list or library with Power AutomateAugust 3, 2022
  • Handle deleted files in synchronised SP library in Power AutomateJuly 31, 2022
  • Create item with lookup column in a dynamic list (Power Automate)July 27, 2022
  • How to move list between SharePoint tenants with Power AutomateJuly 24, 2022

Power Automate blogs worth visiting

Damien Bird
Dennis (Expiscornovus)
Paul Murana

© 2022 Let's POWER Automate | Powered by Superbs Personal Blog theme