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

Why has a Power Automate action grey color in the run history

Posted on January 13, 2021April 14, 2021 by Tom

“I don’t get the results I want, for some reason when checking the Power Automate flow the action is grey and I cannot understand what is going on.”


When you check the flow run history, Power Automate will show you the path it went through. Each action will have a small icon in the top right corner. Green circle with check mark for successful actions, red circle with exclamation mark for failed actions, or grey circle with x for skipped actions. But there can be also actions without any icon, with faded colours, found inside ‘Apply to each’ loops. For the ‘Condition’ action below it’s a light grey.

Power Automate grey Condition

There was no data to process

Faded colour means that the action was skipped. But not in the same way as if it had a grey circle with an x icon. It was skipped because there were no data to process.

On the screenshot above the flow did go through the ‘Apply to each 5’ action (there’s a green circle with check mark). It was ready to process all data in the array, one by one, but it couldn’t. The array was empty. Since there was no data to process in the loop, it did skip all actions inside and moved on.

Summary

Whenever you see an action with faded colours inside ‘Apply to each’, you should look for problem one step above. Faded colour means there was no data to process in the loop.

If a ‘Condition’ (or any other action) in a loop was skipped, check the array on the loop’s input. Does it contain any data or is the array empty (it’s value is [] )? Is there any data in the source system? Should the array contain data? If you’re using a Filter Query, does it work as expected?


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Your email address will not be published.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.

  • Format results of date calculation in SharePoint columnJune 29, 2022
  • Why is your Power Automate flow creating duplicatesJune 26, 2022
  • How to create a unique identifier in your Power Automate flowJune 22, 2022
  • How to assign custom SharePoint permission level with Power AutomateJune 19, 2022
  • Remove permissions from a specific SharePoint user with Power AutomateJune 15, 2022

Power Automate blogs worth visiting

Damien Bird
Dennis (Expiscornovus)
Paul Murana

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