Microsoft Lists Approval Re-submission

Question

Hi,

I've created a Lists in SharePoint with an approval status column. Once this has been updated to "approved" whenever someone goes in to edit the item in the list re-approval is required. How do we disable this re-approval requirement? My versioning settings only lists the following options:

Any help you can give would be appreciated.

Thanks

Rob

Answer 1

Hello @Rob Cousins , 

I'm not sure if you've had a chance to ask in the Power Automate community yet, as I mentioned earlier. 

On my end, I’ve continued researching and reviewing the SharePoint settings to better understand why an item that’s already approved would require re-approval after being edited. 

From what I’ve found, if you're not seeing the “Require content approval for submitted items” option in the Versioning Settings, it could be because the SharePoint Server Publishing Infrastructure feature hasn’t been activated.  

This is a site collection-level feature, and when it's not enabled, certain content approval options may be unavailable. 

You can try enabling it by following these steps: 

1. Go to Site Settings from the root of your site collection. 

2. Navigate to Site Collection Features. 

3. Find and activate the SharePoint Server Publishing Infrastructure feature. 

Once activated, you can go back to your list and check the Versioning Settings again to see if the content approval option appears. 

I hope you understand that I’ve tried my best to research and provide helpful guidance, and I’m always here to support you.  

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If you find this information helpful, please consider marking it as an answer. Once marked, it will automatically pin to top. As other users will also search information in this community, your valuable marked answer will definitely also help other users who have similar queries easily to find the correct channel and useful information more quickly.  

Please feel free to let me know if there’s anything I can help with. 

I truly hope this helps move things forward, and I look forward to hearing how it goes! 

Answer 2

Hello @Rob Cousins , 
Thank you for responding. 

I’m apologies I didn’t check your screenshot more carefully earlier. 

After reviewing it again, I can confirm that the “Approval Status” column you're using is likely a custom choice column or part of a Power Automate approval flow, not the native SharePoint content approval feature. That’s why the “Require content approval” option doesn’t appear in your versioning settings. 

Because of this, the only way to prevent re-approval on edits is to modify your Power Automate flow. You’ll need to add a trigger condition, or a logic check to ensure the approval process only runs when the item is newly created or not yet approved. 

You can consider the following flow setup as a reference: 

• From your SharePoint list, go to Automate => Create a flow 
• Use a template like “Start approval when a new item is added”, or build one from blank 

If creating from blank:  

• Trigger: When an item is created (SharePoint connector); select your site and list. (Do not use "When an item is created or modified," as that would re-trigger on edits.) 
• Add an action: Start and wait for an approval (Approvals connector); configure approvers (e.g., a specific user or group), title, details, etc. 
• Add a condition: If approved, update the item with Set content approval status action (SharePoint connector) to "Approved." If rejected, set to "Rejected." 

Optionally, you can update the Approval Status column or notify users. 

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That said, I hope you understand that I’m only a moderator on this forum, so I can share insights based on my experience and research, but I’m limited in providing a full Power Automate flow setup. 

Instead, I encourage you to post your questions in the following spaces, where technical experts and Microsoft engineers are more active: Microsoft Power Platform Community Forum Thread 

These forums are dedicated to Power Automate and related technologies, and you’ll find moderators and experts who specialize in these areas.  

 

Also, many users still aren’t aware of dedicated communities like the Power Platform Forum, where Microsoft experts and engineers actively support Power Automate questions.

If you found this answer helpful, I strongly recommend you mark it as accepted. It helps others discover these resources more easily; especially those who may not know such forums exist.

Thank you for cooperation.

Answer 3

Hello @Rob Cousins , 

Thank you for reaching out to the Q&A forum! 

For your situation, please take note this point:

When you create a SharePoint list with an approval status column. When an item is marked as Approved, editing that item causes it to require re-approval.  

SharePoint treats any edit to an approved item as a new draft version, which must be approved again. 

Since this happens because Content Approval is enabled, you need to disable re-approval after edits: 

• You go to your SharePoint list and click on Settings =>List Settings. 
• Select Versioning Settings. 
• Find the option “Require content approval for submitted items?” and set it to No. 
• Click OK to save. 

Once disabled, items will no longer require re-approval after being edited. 

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