Need help understanding 'Modified' column in Sharepoint List

Question

My 'Modified' and 'Modified By' columns show that I'm updating all the items in the list almost every second. I'm not doing any actual changes to the items. My guess is that this is because of the Flows that I have connected to them.

It seems like it's creating a cycle. I have several flows that are triggered by 'When an item is created or modified', but it seems like the triggering of the flows themselves are actually creating the modification.

This is just my guess. Can someone explain this better?

I just really don't understand why it keeps saying that I modified all the items when I haven't actually edited them.

Answer 1

Your guess is correct. This is a classic issue with Flow as well as SharePoint designer workflows.

The traditional solution has been to use a hidden 'flag' column which indicates if the item is updated by flow or through the UI.

You can find many posts online which talk about this. One of them is referenced below

Refer: Prevent Infinite Loop in Microsoft Flow/Power Automate

Answer 2

Can anybody clarify what is the right code for trigger. Code from solution post does not work for me. What I try to do is set interval to 50 seconds instead of 2 minutes, but get error in both cases:

@not(lessOrEquals(ticks(triggerBody()?['Modified']), ticks(addMinutes(triggerBody()?['flowModified'], 2))))

@not(lessOrEquals(ticks(triggerBody()?['Modified']), ticks(addSeconds(triggerBody()?['flowModified'], 50))))