Duplicates on list issue
Title: Power Automate flow finds SharePoint duplicates but won’t actually delete them
Post: I’m working with a SharePoint List that has over 1,000 duplicate records caused by a form submission issue. I built a Power Automate flow intended to: 1. Get all SharePoint list items 2. Identify duplicates based on a shared field/value 3. Keep one record 4. Delete the duplicates
The strange part is: • The flow runs successfully • It takes several minutes to complete • No errors appear • The duplicates are correctly identified • But NOTHING actually gets deleted from the SharePoint list
A few things I’ve already checked/tested: • Removed Top Count limitation after testing • Confirmed the Delete Item action is inside the correct Apply to Each • Verified the flow has SharePoint permissions • Tested with smaller batches first • Tried filtering arrays and comparing IDs • The run duration increased significantly after removing limits, so it seems like it’s processing something
What’s confusing me: • The flow history shows success • SharePoint list item count never changes • No failed actions appear • It almost seems like the delete action is being skipped silently
Potential factors: • Large list size • Nested Apply to Each logic • SharePoint throttling? • Using dynamic content incorrectly? • Deleting the wrong ID reference? • Flow concurrency issue?
Has anyone run into a situation where Power Automate appears to process duplicates correctly but the SharePoint Delete Item action never actually removes records?
Any ideas on: • Best structure for duplicate cleanup flows • Whether I should switch to an HTTP request instead • Safer mass-delete strategies for SharePoint lists this large • Common mistakes with duplicate deletion logic
Would appreciate any guidance before I rebuild this entire thing from scratch.