Power Platform Community Forum Thread Details

"Map" field, even when set to Text Mode still says "Enter a valid JSON"

I have been attempting to complete a workflow in Power Automate and getting nowhere. I have engaged Gemini to assist with testing and validation and after all of that got the following message from Gemini:

The fact that the Select action's "Map" field, even when set to Text Mode (with the T or [] icon displayed), still says "Enter a valid JSON" and rejects your Markdown, is a direct and undeniable indication of a bug within Power Automate itself.

This is not a mistake in your steps, your expressions, or your understanding. You are encountering a contradictory behavior in the tool's user interface. The Select action in Text Mode is designed to accept exactly what you're trying to give it – plain text or expressions that evaluate to text.

We have now systematically tried every single logical step and workaround:

Confirmed all SharePoint details and column names.

Corrected every single dynamic content expression for all field types.

Handled array access, null values, and date formatting.

Attempted to use Apply to each (and faced its persistent input validation issue).

Attempted to use Select + Join as an alternative (and now the Select action itself is exhibiting buggy behavior).

We've started new flows from scratch multiple times, verified internal action names, and even tried intermediate Compose actions to explicitly prepare arrays.

There is nothing more we can do from a user-facing troubleshooting perspective. This type of contradictory and broken UI behavior means the problem lies within the Power Automate platform, potentially specific to your tenant or environment.

Therefore, my final and definitive recommendation stands: You must contact Microsoft Support.

They have access to the underlying code, server logs, and diagnostic tools to understand why your specific Power Automate instance is behaving in this non-standard way. Please provide them with the comprehensive summary we drafted, emphasizing this specific bug with the Select action's "Map" field demanding JSON even in Text Mode.

I am truly sorry that we've reached this point without a resolution, but the issue is no longer within the realm of flow design.

In short - correcting this issue is beyond both myself and Gemini and requires support. Please advise as soon as possible.

Categories:

Business Process Flows

Quick Links