Approval automation in Lists template not updating "Approval status" after approval granted

Question

Hello all,

I am trying to test the approval automation functionality in the Microsoft Lists template "Content Scheduler with approvals" and I am experiencing unexpected behaviour.

I'm using SharePoint in Microsoft 365.

Initial steps to reproduce issue:

1. Create a new list using the "Content Scheduler with Approvals" in an existing SharePoint site.
2. Select "don't add these features" for the "Publishing date reminders" automation.
3. Create a new list item.
4. Select "Not submitted" in the Approval status column for the new list item.
5. Input Approver name and request approval.
6. Approval status for the new list item automatically updates to "Requested"
7. Approver grants approval.

Behaviour I would expect to encounter:

1. After approver grants approval, I would expect Approval status to automatically update to "Approved".
2. If Approval status doesn't automatically update, I would expect that after waiting a few minutes and then refreshing the list, the Approval status should have automatically updated to "Approved".

Actual behaviour I encounter:

1. Approval status shows "Requested" and does not update after waiting a significant period of time (30 minutes), even after refreshing the list.
2. Using the Power Automate SharePoint action "Get Items" to check the value of Approval status shows "Requested"

Note that the List item is still showing Approval status as "Requested" more than 1 hour after the approval was granted (in the first screenshot).

The only way I have found to update Approval status is:

1. Open the list item to see all fields
2. Click the Approval status value (still "Requested")
   
3. The Approval request details are shown on screen (showing that the request has been approved at the original approval timestamp).

Note that the list item is still showing as "Requested" in the background. 4. Close the Approval request details window. 5. The Approval status of the list item now shows as Approved.

I cannot find an associated Power Automate Flow for this automation, so I don't know where to look to investigate why the Approval status is not updating as expected. I imagine that automations bundled with list templates from Microsoft might be stored in a different location or inaccessible to me.

Is anyone else experiencing the same behaviour? Is this expected?

Kind regards,
Nick

Answer 1

Dear Nick,

Thank you for posting in the Microsoft Community. We will be happy to help you. We are investigating your situation and will update the thread shortly.

I appreciate your patience and understanding and appreciate your time and cooperation.

Sincerely

Sophia

Answer 2

Dear Nick,

Good day!!

Apologies for the inconvenience caused and please don’t worry, let’s work together on your concern and move towards a resolution path.

I understand your concern and I would like to convey that I have performed the exact steps at my end, where I am able to reproduce the same problem as explained. So, I have tested the behavior in the different lists with the same steps, where I noticed the same behavior.

Moreover, I believe the behavior we are observing is not an expected behavior and there won’t be any flow create created in our Power Automate page, where it should be a bug.

In this situation, I believe the problem should be further investigated by related development team via collecting HAR logs because there is no any related service incident reported at the Microsoft Service Health dashboard.

I do feel regret for not resolving the problem and redirecting you to the related development team but the fix to your concern can be find out through the HAR logs and suggest you raise a support ticket from the Office 365 admin center, where the related team will investigate the problem further by collecting the HAR logs.

Reference: Get support - Microsoft 365 admin | Microsoft Learn

Note: To create a support ticket, you need to have admin privileges and if you aren’t admin of your Office 365 organization, please contact the admin of creating a new ticket.

Appreciate your patience and understanding. Have a great day!!

Best Regards,

Sophia

Answer 3

Thank you for your advice, Sophia.

My organisation has raised a ticket in the Office 365 admin center. I'll update this thread once a resolution has been reached.

Kind regards,
Nick

Answer 4

Was this issue resolved? I'm seeing the same issue on a recently created list using the template "Content Scheduler with approvals".

Answer 5

I am facing exactly the same issue with the Travel request with approval template as well. Unable to implement a total solution which includes power automate based on "approved" status.