How to Recover Power Automate Flows When an Employee Leaves
Question details
The user needs to know how to retain, transfer, or recover ownership of Power Automate flows and Power Apps created by a departing employee.
- Product
- Power Automate and Power Apps
- Device & OS
- not provided
- Scenario
- An employee is leaving or has already left the organization, and their created automations and applications need to be preserved.
- Observed behavior
- Without intervention, the organization risks losing access to critical business automations and apps linked to the departing employee's account once disabled or deleted.
Verify whether the departing employee's Microsoft 365 account is still active, disabled, or permanently deleted, as this dictates the recovery method you must use.
Add Co-owners and Export Apps Proactively
If the employee's account is still accessible or disabled but not deleted, administrators or the creator can share ownership and export the data.
The most effective way to prevent data loss is to assign co-owners before the user's account is completely removed from the directory. This ensures continuity for business-critical automations.
Log into Power Automate or Power Apps using the active employee's credentials or an administrator account with sufficient environment permissions.
Navigate to 'My flows' or 'Apps', select the specific flow or application, click the 'Share' button, and add another active user or service account as a co-owner.
As a secondary backup, select the flow or app, click 'Export', and choose 'Package (.zip)'. Save this file securely so it can be imported into another account later.
Request Data Recovery via Microsoft Support
Use this method if the employee's account has been permanently deleted and cannot be restored through the Microsoft 365 Admin Center.
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Frequently Asked Questions
What happens to a Power Automate flow if the creator's account is disabled?
If the flow relies on connections tied to the disabled user's credentials (like Outlook or SharePoint connectors), the flow will fail to run. You must edit the flow and update the connection credentials to an active service account.
How long can I restore a deleted Microsoft 365 user account?
Microsoft typically retains deleted user accounts and their associated data for 30 days. Within this 30-day window, a Global Administrator can easily restore the account from the 'Deleted users' section in the Admin Center.
Can an administrator force a change of ownership for an orphaned flow?
Yes, a Power Platform Administrator can use the Power Platform admin center or specific PowerShell cmdlets to view orphaned flows and reassign ownership to an active user.
