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Fix Power Automate Planner Task Description Limits & HTML Tags

Rana Garcia Oct 12, 2026 869 views

Question details

Users need to add a description to a Microsoft Planner task created from a Teams Update via Power Automate without exceeding character limits or importing raw HTML tags.

How to Add a Description to a Planner Task via Power Automate

Product: Power Automate
Device & OS: not provided
Scenario: A Power Automate flow is set up to create a Planner task based on a Microsoft Teams update, but it mistakenly combines the subject and description into the title field.
Observed behavior: The flow exceeds the 250-character limit for Planner task titles, causing the task creation to fail, and includes unwanted HTML tags such as </div> around line breaks and list items.

Before you start

Ensure you have edit permissions for the affected Power Automate flow and verify that your Microsoft Teams and Planner connections are fully authenticated.

Solution 1Recommended

Clean HTML Tags and Truncate the Planner Title

Use Power Automate expressions to strip HTML tags from the Teams update and keep the task title under the 250-character limit.

The Planner Graph API enforces a strict 250-character limit for task titles. When Teams update content is passed directly to Planner, hidden HTML formatting tags are included, which inflate the character count and cause the flow to fail. You must clean the text before passing it to the 'Create a task' action.

Add a Compose Action

Open your flow in the Power Automate editor. Click the plus icon (+) before your 'Create a task' step, select 'Add an action', and search for 'Compose' (Data Operations).

Remove HTML Tags Using Expressions

Click inside the 'Inputs' field of the Compose action, switch to the 'Expression' tab, and use the replace() function to remove HTML tags. For example: replace(triggerOutputs()?['body/description'], '</div>', ''). You can nest multiple replace functions for different tags.

Truncate the Title Length

In the 'Create a task' action, click the 'Title' field. Switch to the 'Expression' tab and use the substring() function to ensure the title never exceeds 250 characters, e.g., substring(outputs('Compose'), 0, 250).

Clean HTML Tags and Truncate the Planner Title

Task Description Workaround: After the 'Create a task' action, you can add an 'Update task details' action to pass the full, un-truncated text safely into the actual Description field of the newly created Planner task.

Solution 2

Store the Full Description in SharePoint or OneNote

Bypass the Planner text limitations entirely by storing the full Teams Update content in an external document and linking it to the task.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Why does my Power Automate flow fail when creating a Planner task?

The flow typically fails if the text mapped to the task's Title field exceeds Microsoft Planner's strict 250-character limit. This often happens when a long description or subject line is mistakenly assigned to the title.

How do I remove HTML tags like </div> from my Power Automate text?

You can clean HTML tags using the replace() expression in Power Automate. By adding a Compose action and wrapping your dynamic content in replace(content, '</div>', ''), the flow will substitute the unwanted tag with an empty string.

Can I automatically add a description to a Planner task without using the title field?

Yes. The initial 'Create a task' action does not include a description field by default. To add a description, you must append an 'Update task details' action immediately after 'Create a task' and map your long-form text into the Description field there.

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