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We are experiencing a critical issue with Microsoft Power Apps' offline mode that affects data reliability and app stability. This blog post outlines the problem for awareness and to formally request support from Microsoft.
Our canvas app is designed for offline-first use, utilizing the recommended approach of:
Loading data into collections using ClearCollect and LoadData.
Caching tables locally using SaveData.
Calling APIs (via custom connectors) to retrieve or manipulate data, including retrieving single records.
This architecture has worked well for most of our tables—but not all.
With two specific tables, we observe critical failures under the following conditions
If we use Power Apps functions like ClearCollect, Filter, or LookUp on these two tables, any subsequent API call to retrieve a single record from the same table fails.
Blank data shown in galleries or forms connected to the affected table.
Runtime errors in the app, halting functionality.
Inability to access or interact with local or API-loaded data from these tables.
The failure manifests as:
Other tables in the app work fine using the exact same approach.
This behavior is exclusive to offline mode. In online mode, the same tables and functions behave correctly.
It’s consistently reproducible: as soon as ClearCollect, Filter, or LookUp is called on the table, any single-record API call to that table breaks, even if it worked before.
Misuse of formulas (we follow best practices from authoritative sources like Matthew Devaney).
Schema mismatch between local collections and API responses.
Errors in the connector definition or authentication.
Data inconsistency (the issue is reproducible with clean test datasets).
Use of unsupported column types or delegation issues (we've checked against the delegation documentation and known limitations).
We suspect one or more of the following may be contributing to this problem:
Offline cache corruption triggered by the interaction between Power Apps’ data functions (ClearCollect, Filter, LookUp) and cached API data.
Collection context collision, where Power Apps is unable to reconcile the local vs. API dataset structure for specific tables.
An undocumented limitation or bug in Power Apps offline functionality, specific to operations that mix single-record access and collection-level manipulation.
This issue critically limits our ability to support offline scenarios for key business workflows:
End users are unable to see or update data for essential entities while offline.
API access fails mid-session, causing runtime errors and a broken user experience.
App reliability and trust are compromised in mission-critical environments.
We are raising this issue to request:
A technical investigation from Microsoft into this behavior.
Clarification if this is a known limitation or bug in the Power Apps offline engine.
Any possible workarounds or configuration changes to enable safe usage of ClearCollect, Filter, or LookUp without disrupting API access to these tables.
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