Shared Power Automate flows can still die with the person who built them
Reviewed by Helen Jones
Microsoft’s guidance on sharing cloud flows spells out three options: add owners, give run-only access, or share a copy. Owners can edit and manage the flow with you. Run-only users can start it without changing the design. Separate connection guidance makes a sharper point. Each action still runs under the connection that someone authorised. Adding a co-owner does not automatically move those connections to a shared or service identity. If the original maker’s account is disabled, a password changes, or a connection expires, the flow can stop even though the team still has edit rights on the flow itself. Some connectors and policies also limit how freely connections can be shared or swapped.
Many departmental automations were treated as finished once a colleague could open the flow in Power Automate. Sharing felt like handover. In practice the flow and the credentials were two different things, so a reliable SharePoint, Outlook, or Teams process could keep working for months and then fail the week someone left or rotated roles. What the docs make unavoidable is the maintenance rule: co-ownership only solves who can edit. Continuity depends on who owns each connection behind the actions. Without that check, run history fills with auth failures, approvals and notifications go quiet, and the team discovers the gap only after the business process has already stalled.
Analysis
Treat this as a trap to avoid on any flow people already rely on, not as a reason to rebuild everything. Open your critical cloud flows, compare flow owners with the connection owner on each action, and move or recreate connections under a stable shared account your team controls before the next leaver, not after the first failed run.
Source note
Pulse published by Collab365 Spaces, reviewed by Helen Jones on . Cite as "Shared Power Automate flows can still die with the person who built them", Collab365 Spaces. 2 sources referenced.