Unable to collect response info when user does not approve/reject within timeframe

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Posted on by Jap11

352

Hello

I have a flow in power automate that uses a start and wait for approval inside of a condition.

I have set the start and wait for approval to time out after 7 days and move on to the next action.

My issue:

When my flow moves to the next action, this is a apply to each action which is using AllApprovers as the value, this lists each persons name and email who are receiving the start and wait for approval.

I then need to compose the name, response date, and response from every user from the start and wait for approval which should sync to the names and emails in the variable. However, not all users usually respond, therefore I need a way to for the flow to find which users HAVE and HAVE NOT responded.

For example, if after 7 days and the flow moves to the next step, Joe did respond and Dan didn't, my compose actions output should display like this:

System Owner: Joe
Response Date: 03/06/2025
Response: Approved

System Owner: Dan
Response Date: BLANK
Response: USER FAILED TO RESPOND

Screenshots:

I have tried using a filter array, however as soon as it the flow finds a user that HAS NOT responded, it fails. It only works if Joe and Dan both provided a response within the 7 days.

I have already posted this issue on here but unfortunately I'm still struggling with a solution, so hoping my sharing it again/with some more information, I can get a fix :)

As always, appreciate any kind of support.

Thanks.

Categories:

Business Process Flows

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Answers (1)

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Jap11 352 on at

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Unable to collect response info when user does not approve/reject within timeframe

Thanks @David_MA and @Pstork1 for your suggestions - I've taken onboard what you both recommended.

I have since found a solution by putting the start and wait for approval into the apply to each loop.

After, i then have a condition to check if the outcome of the approval is equal to null for the user it has looped on, if Yes, then i can add that the user did not respond. If no, then i can use the users response.
David_MA 11,329 Super User 2025 Season 1 on at

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Unable to collect response info when user does not approve/reject within timeframe

Since the approval is timing out, the responses are not sent back to the workflow so you cannot get the data through the workflow until all of the responses have been received. You would need to set up a parallel branch under the start and wait for an approval action where the first action under this parallel branch only triggers if the approval times out.

The next part is not easy. You would need to access the Dataverse tables to get the approval and then figure out how to find the data of the response it did receive and from whom. At a minimum, you can use the approval ID from the create an approval action to get the corresponding item in the Approvals table, but this one table does not store all of the data you want.

What you want to do is not something I have attempted, but I think Reza Dorrani may have a video in his Approvals Cookbook playlist on YouTube that may provide the information you need to do what you want. The videos are located at Power Automate Multi Level Approval Workflow | Serial Approval | Multiple Approvers - YouTube.

This is to illustrate the parallel branch and setting one side to only run when the approval times out, as well as the relationship the approval ID has to the approvals table:

The way I handle this, if the approval times out we treat it as the request was rejected. Clean and simple.
Pstork1 66,710 Most Valuable Professional on at

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Unable to collect response info when user does not approve/reject within timeframe

I think the only way you will get this to work is by looking at the Approvals and Approval Response tables based on the Approval ID. That would require a Premium license, but it should work.

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Paul Papanek Stork, MVP
Blog: https://www.dontpapanic.com/blog