Network Error when Patch Microsoft Office Users (Person) to Sharepoint List Column (Person Column)

Question

I have tried basically everything when trying to patch a person to my sharepoint list people column, by this I mean I am using the Microsoft Azure AD to patch persons to the person column on sharepoint, and consistently get a network error but I'm not sure where or why I get it. Heres all the code I've tried. I'm using a combobox to support my power app column. And I am writing this code on OnChange. I have tried so many versions at this point and I'm not sure where I'm going wrong. If anyone has any suggestions or if this is a microsoft power apps issue please let me know. Thank you!

Patch( 
    '2027AOCalendarCurrent', 
    ThisItem, 
    { 
        'AO Manager Test': { 
            '@odata.type': "#Microsoft.Azure.Connectors.SharePoint.SPListExpandedUser", 
            Claims: "i:0#.f|membership|" & Lower(ComboBox1.Selected.UserPrincipalName), 
            DisplayName: ComboBox1.Selected.DisplayName, 
            Email: ComboBox1.Selected.UserPrincipalName,   
            Department: Blank(), 
            JobTitle: Blank(), 
            Picture: Blank() 
        } 
    } 
);

Refresh('2027AOCalendarCurrent');


Patch(
    colCalendar,
    ThisItem,
    {
        'AO Manager Test': {
            Claims: "i:0#.f|membership|" & Lower(ComboBox1.Selected.UserPrincipalName),
            DisplayName: ComboBox1.Selected.DisplayName,
            Email: ComboBox1.Selected.UserPrincipalName,
            Department: Blank(),
            JobTitle: Blank(),
            Picture: Blank()
        }
    }
);

//NEW ATTEMPT

Patch( 
        '2027AOCalendarCurrent', 
        ThisItem, 
        { 
            'AO Manager Test': { 
                '
                Claims: "i:0#.f|membership|" & Lower(
                DisplayName: 
                Email: 
                Department: Blank(), 
                JobTitle: Blank(), 
                Picture: Blank() 
            } 
        } 
    ); 
//); 
   
Refresh('2027AOCalendarCurrent'); 
       
Patch( 
    colCalendar, 
    ThisItem, 
    { 
        'AO Manager Test': { 
            Claims: "i:0#.f|membership|" & Lower(
            DisplayName: 
            Email: 
            Department: Blank(), 
            JobTitle: Blank(), 
            Picture: Blank() 
         
        } 
    } 
); 

//NEW ATTEMPT
Patch('2027AOCalendarCurrent', First('2027AOCalendarCurrent'),  
    {'AO Manager Test': 
        { 
            Claims: "i:0#.f|membership|" & 
            Department:"",  
            DisplayName: 
            Email: 
        } 
    } 
   
); 

Answer 1

Hi @Lalitha Edupuganti, 

Based on your detail description, you are experiencing a persistent network error when attempting to patch a user from a ComboBox to a SharePoint Person column using Power Apps.  

While your syntax for the Person record (such as the @odata.type and Claims formatting) appears structurally correct in your first example, these network errors most frequently occur due to a strict schema mismatch between the data Power Apps is sending and the specific backend configuration of your SharePoint list. 

To help me better diagnose the root cause, could you please clarify:  

• Is the 'AO Manager Test' column in your SharePoint list configured to "Allow multiple selections"? 

If it is a multi-select column, the Patch function will automatically reject a single Record and throw an error. It requires the data to be explicitly formatted as a Table. 

---

Given the highly specialized nature of Power Apps development and Azure AD integration, I also highly recommend leveraging the following dedicated channels to help you reach a resolution as efficiently as possible: 

1/ Microsoft Power Apps Community Forum:  

• I encourage you to post your code snippets here because it is actively monitored by Microsoft MVPs and seasoned developers.  
• They have extensive, hands-on experience with SharePoint list anomalies and can often provide exact, tested code corrections based on real-world scenarios much faster than standard support queues. 

2/ Microsoft 365 Admin Center:  

• If your code is perfectly formatted but the error persists, the issue may be caused by tenant-level throttling, a corrupted API connection, or a backend Azure AD sync failure.  
• In this scenario, I recommend having your IT admin open a direct support ticket. Microsoft Support engineers possess the backend telemetry tools required to trace the exact failure point of your network request, which is something we cannot see from the front-end application. 
• For detailed instructions on how to get support, please refer to Get support - Microsoft 365 admin.  
• In case you do not know who is your IT admin, kindly refer to this article: How do I find my Microsoft 365 admin? - Microsoft Support.  

Please let me know if the column is set to multi-select so I can continue troubleshooting, or if you have any further questions. 

---

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Answer 2

The network error is not caused by the SharePoint list itself but by how the People column value is being constructed in Power Apps. For a SharePoint Person column, the safest and supported approach in Power Apps is to patch the record returned by the People picker / Office 365 Users control directly, not to manually build the Claims string or @odata.type wrapper.

Use this pattern instead of constructing the claims object manually:

Patch(
    '2027AOCalendarCurrent',
    ThisItem,
    {
        'AO Manager Test': ComboBox1.Selected
    }
);

Patch(
    colCalendar,
    ThisItem,
    {
        'AO Manager Test': ComboBox1.Selected
    }
);

Key points:

1. ComboBox Items property
   • Ensure ComboBox1.Items is bound to a people source that returns proper user records, for example:
     • Office365Users.SearchUser({ SearchTerm: txtSearch.Text }), or
     • The People column of the same SharePoint list, or
     • Choices('2027AOCalendarCurrent'.'AO Manager Test') if using a SharePoint integration.
   • The selected record must be a valid SharePoint user object (with Claims, DisplayName, Email etc.) so Power Apps can send it correctly.
2. Do not set @odata.type manually
   • Power Apps automatically wraps the person record in the correct SPListExpandedUser structure when patching to a Person column. Manually specifying @odata.type is unnecessary and often causes connector errors.
3. Do not build the Claims string manually
   • The connector expects a valid user object; constructing "i:0#.f|membership|" & Lower(ComboBox1.Selected.UserPrincipalName) is fragile and can fail if the user is not resolved or if the format is slightly off.
4. Confirm the column type in SharePoint
   • Verify 'AO Manager Test' is a Person or Group column (not text) and that it allows the user(s) being selected.
5. Avoid incomplete objects
   • Several of the “NEW ATTEMPT” snippets in the question show incomplete properties (e.g., DisplayName: with no value). Any attempt to patch such an object will fail.
6. If a collection is needed
   • If colCalendar is a local collection mirroring the list, patch it with the same record:

          Patch(
              colCalendar,
              LookUp(colCalendar, ID = ThisItem.ID),
              { 'AO Manager Test': ComboBox1.Selected }
          );
     

By letting Power Apps send ComboBox1.Selected directly to the Person column, the connector handles the correct schema and prevents the network/connector error caused by malformed person objects.

---

References:

• SharePoint Online workflow that uses the Update List Item action fails to update a Person or Group column
• Web service error codes

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