Hi everyone,

Looking for some insight or troubleshooting steps from anyone who might have run into this issue with Hosted Machines in Power Automate.

As context:

• Yesterday we purchased the Power Automate Hosted Process license.
• A Microsoft representative helped us assign the license/capacity to our environment during a call.
• While on the call, we attempted to set up a Hosted Machine.
• The provisioning process ran for several minutes before failing with an error.

The machine status in the portal currently displays: "Provisioned with error".

Has anyone encountered this specific error before? Is there a known way to force a re-provision, clear the stuck state, or check detailed logs to see what caused the provision to fail?

Any guidance or troubleshooting steps would be greatly appreciated!

Hi everyone, i tried to use power query to connect 2 test templates that reference a material/sku list for landed costs. The idea is to scale this to 30-50 templates for salespeople, and have them update automatically from this one file with all the skus. Is this possible? I tried to use Power Query but once i make a connection to the source data it is difficult or nearly impossible to overwrite the source data. Any suggestions or tools i can use to do this? Let me know if you have any suggestions

I have been thinking about how to automate repetitive tasks without losing control over the final result. It's easy to focus on making a workflow run automatically, but sometimes the more important question is knowing where a person should review something before the process continues.

For example, imagine a workflow that prepares content for a social media update. Some steps could be automated, such as organizing the information, preparing a draft, or notifying the person responsible for reviewing it. But I would still want someone to check the wording, accuracy, and context before anything gets published.

This is something I have been exploring while looking at AI assisted content workflows, including Fismbot and also interested in how people handle the balance between saving time through automation and keeping human oversight in place.

For those using Power Automate, do you prefer approval actions, conditions, or separate flows for this kind of process? What has worked best for you?

Hey can someone help me create a power automate flow chart for mail automation

With file-based flows, a trigger can fire as soon as a file appears even if another process is still writing it. The flow may then read a partial file, fail on a temporary lock, or move an incomplete document along the pipeline.

A short delay can help when the source system has no completion signal, but a fixed wait is only a guess: large files or busy services may take longer. A safer pattern is to check a reliable readiness condition, such as a completed-upload flag or a stable file size across a couple of checks, then handle a timeout as an exception rather than processing anyway.

If the source supports it, triggering on a finalized upload or a separate “ready” marker is better than trying to infer completion. I’d also keep the original file in place until the downstream step confirms it has read the expected content.

That distinction between “file exists” and “file is ready” prevents a lot of confusing failures in document workflows.

Daylight-saving changes can affect workflows scheduled by local clock time. In spring, a scheduled time may not exist; in autumn, the same local time can occur twice. A flow that sends reminders, creates invoices, or starts a handoff may miss or duplicate work if it relies only on the displayed time.

Keep the schedule’s time zone explicit, and make the action idempotent with a key for the intended business occurrence, such as `process-name + local date`, stored with the result. Test dates around both clock changes, and decide whether a skipped run should be moved, skipped, or processed once. If a deadline represents a fixed instant, storing and comparing UTC timestamps is usually clearer.

The key distinction is whether the requirement means “at 9 a.m. local time” or “24 hours after the previous run.” Those are different schedules.

Anyone else seeing an issue where the send email action is showing success but not actually sending an email? This has been tested across a bunch of different flows, and all say success, but nothing is being received.

If you are using Power Platform solutions, you may have stumbled across the gotcha, that MS Forms cannot be used as a solution artifact and deployed with it. Which of course creates issues when development and production use of the Forms happen simultaneously...

How did you guys solve this issue?

I created a blog post that shows one possible way to solve this, using a Dataverse mapping table as well as a little bit of Power Automate trickery. I hope this is useful to some of you.

https://professional-power-automate.blogspot.com/2026/10/ms-forms-for-power-platform-solutions.html

Just wondering if it's a local problem or something else, but make.powerautomate.com seems extremely slow today. I've been waiting 5 minutes to load the flow I was working on yesterday...

I have a Test folder in sharepoint called XYZ.
Everytime I create a new folder inside test folder, i want power automate to create a current year folder,eg 2026 and inside 2026 three folders inside it: Sales,Tech and HR.
How to achieve this?

XYZ SharePoint
|
2026
|
Sales, Tech, HR

What to use?
When a file is created in a folder, then site address, folder ID, and create folder and name it and how to make aure the flow keeps running since automatic isnt an option.

Everytime i cant run the flow to create these folders inside 2026

Hi guys, can you please share power automate or power platform governance and operating model documents if any one have . Or please share the link if anywhere you have.

Thanks in advance.

My job title is AI and automation specialist, I come from a msp where I took over the power automate flows and rebuilt the processes , to moving into power apps, and eventually ending up at the current company. I used to enjoy this, until day in and day out the work became enhancement requests and bug fixes for flows my senior has created and no longer actual projects.

Now bear in mind, we specialise in document automation in the freight forwarding space and last year processed over a million documents.

I have reached a point now though where I’m frustrated at the lack of enjoyment due to having no real projects left, and the market salaries are much higher but power automate roles come up so infrequently and I never seem to get them .

Tldr: niche role, below market salary, bored of enhancements and no real projects.

I have a small team of 3 people including myself, driving process improvements using automation and AI.

Our company system landscape is Microsoft-based + SAP.

We have premium licenses for both Copilot and Power platform.

We have some experience with Excel, VBA, Power querys and a couple of PA flows.

We will now start learning more of PA and strengthen our capabilities.

Weve been using Copilot for guidance building our flows, with varying results, but still would like to use Copilot to stay within our system landscape for security reasons.

What are your tips to progress fast in our learing journey, reduce risk of being misled by Copilot and bring accurate guidance?

Create and agent specifically for the task? What would you make sure is in the prompt? Are there any sources you would recommend to specify for an agent that could improve the accuracy?

Im hoping to learn using PowerAutomate with SharePoint and outlook. Does anyone know of any official ways to have 1:1 learning sessions? Is there a company or something that offers this type of tutoring/classes? Im willing to pay for lessons.

TIA

Hey Everyone! Quick question on automation approaches.

Every month, I have 4-5 Excel files manually uploaded to SharePoint that I need to combine into a single Word report for stakeholders(there are many tables, charts from all the file data that to be created). If I use an automated trigger, it runs per file, so I can't easily compile one master data table for the template.

I was thinking of using a Scheduled Flow, while ChatGPT suggested batch processing. Has anyone built a solution for a scenario like this? Any advice would be hugely appreciated!

Most of the posts here are asking for help on how to do something in Power Automate. Why is it that the best advice some people can give is to use AI tools like Claude.

Why is it ok to tell people in need to search for the answer themselves?

For many years I have helped 1000s of strangers who need help with their flows on the chat on SharePains.com. Never ever would I have thought of telling people to Google for the answer.

Everytime I launch Excel thru power automate, the Ychart tab dissapears. New File or existing… still no Ycharts.

I open excel manually and Ycharts appears. My add in shows it is installed on the files Ycharts dissapears.

Hi everyone,

We are setting up a SharePoint site structure where base permissions are handled automatically during provisioning. However, we need a secure, automated way for Project Managers to manage variable, item- or library-level permissions across various lists and document libraries post-provisioning.

Since these users aren't site administrators, we want to build a solution that safely grants or updates access. Specifically, we are exploring the idea of working from a dedicated management list (or metadata fields) where users can input or link Microsoft Entra ID security groups, which in turn dynamically grant permissions to the target files or folders.

We are very open to looking broader across the Microsoft ecosystem (e.g., Azure, Entra ID governance, native SharePoint features, or hybrid approaches) if there is a more robust or elegant pattern.

• What is the recommended architectural pattern to let non-admin users trigger and manage these permission changes securely?
• Are there preferred tools within the M365 stack for this specific scenario to avoid common permission pitfalls or performance issues at scale?
• How do you prevent permission creep and handle breaking inheritance smoothly across multiple different libraries and lists?

Any tips, reference patterns, or architectural advice would be greatly appreciated!

Hey everyone,

I run a small YouTube channel called Automate M365 where I focus on making straight-to-the-point, step-by-step Power Automate tutorials. No fluff or long intros, just diving into the actual logic because I know how annoying it is to sit through a 10-minute video just to find a quick expression fix.

I want to build some tutorials around automation, but instead of just guessing what to make next, I want to solve real-world headaches.

Whether it's setting up automated deadline remidners based on dates in your SP lists or Excel sheets, sending dynamic emails to people pulled directly from a person column, or trying to manage folder permissions via HTTP actions—what’s driving you crazy right now? Drop it in the comments below. I’ll honestly try to look through them and build the exact solution in a step-by-step video for you.

If you want to check out the channel or subscribe to see if I build your fix, the link is here:

https://www.youtube.com/@AutomateM365

Let me know what you're stuck on, hopefully we can figure it out

Hey everyone!

If this isn't the right place for this post, please let me know which is the right place, and I'll move it to the right community. Thanks!

A bit about me
I'm a business consultant from a non-technical background, and I want to make the move into a slightly more technical role. Automation (especially with AI in the loop) is something I've been curious about for a while, so I'm upskilling in it to help land my next job (while dabbling in personal automation projects on the side)

What I'm learning

• Power Automate Desktop (free version). I don't have access to the enterprise/cloud version.
• n8n - through a structured course I'm starting soon.

My understanding is that these two aren't completely separate tracks. The core logic (triggers, conditions, loops, variables) seems to carry over, so getting better at one should help with the other. Is that right, or am I oversimplifying?

I'm doing Power Automate first. My first project is a small bot that screens job ads in Excel against a list of keywords.

Where I'm stuck

• Microsoft Learn doesn't stick for me. It's mostly reading, and I learn best by actually clicking around in the tool.
• Udemy courses I've found usually assume an enterprise/cloud account, which I don't have.

What I'd love some help/advice in:

1. What's the best hands-on way to learn Power Automate Desktop specifically? Any YouTube channels, practice projects, or follow-along resources that work with the free version?
2. What beginner projects helped things click for you, or which ones are worth showing in a portfolio?
3. For those hiring or working in automation: does experience with the free Desktop version count, or do employers mostly want cloud flows?
4. If the logic does carry over, what's the best way to learn the two together? For example, should I build the same small project in both tools to compare? Are there integrations with Power Automate for LLMs, or is n8n the "go to" if I want to automate with AI?
5. How long did it take you to go from "following tutorials" to "building things on my own"?
6. If you came from a non-technical background, what do you wish you'd known at the start?

Thanks in advance. Any tips, even small ones, are really appreciated! 🙏

I’m a beginner at RPA who uses PAD for web automation at work, and am trying to strengthen my understanding of the syntax in the UI element selector in Text Editor mode. Specifically, my question is about the kind of element attributes that can follow a colon.

I am familiar with :eq(), which can be added to the end of an element to specify which number instance of an element matching the description is being referred to. But while building a flow, I stumbled upon a web forum thread where someone used :has() in a selector. I’ve managed to use that one in my own flow, and it :has(been very useful to me).

Based on the existence of :eq() and :has(), I assume there must be an entire category of modifyers that can go at the end of an element using a colon. I’ve spent a long time looking for some kind of list or explanation of those elements, but so far it’s been fruitless. Even for :has(), I can’t find any documentation outside of that one thread, where it’s used by someone with a very short post history, who says themselves that they’re “pretty new at this”.

Can anyone tell me anything about this type of element? I’d be very thankful to find out if there’s a whole range of tools I could be using to select UI elements (or if there isn’t, so I can at least stop searching for it).