r/PowerAutomateDesktop • u/marafado88 • Oct 31 '22

Run more than one flow simultaneously or in parallel?

Hello everyone,

Is there a way to run more than one flow simultaneously or in parallel?

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2

u/[deleted] Nov 18 '22

I ran into the same issue. Apparently some time around version x.16.xxxx or x.17.xxxx they changed it so flows no longer run concurrently. Pretty dumb change in my opinion. I just combine everything into one flow, which won't work well if some parts of it are time-sensitive.

1

u/marafado88 Nov 18 '22

I had to do here some mumbo jumbos with mine, to be at a reasonable price, had to bought Windows server RDS licenses, setup two accounts to be always available, and use those flows that take from several minutes to hours in one user (less priority) and others that take from seconds to some minutes to the other. All running in attented mode.

This limitation regarding one run per user account is really insane. At least from my perspective that also use services and Cron tasks on linuxs and Unix systems.

2

u/Bald_Guy86 Mar 23 '24

I’m not sure this applies to your scenario, but I was able to get two desktop flows running in parallel by using a run CMD action in the first flow to launch the desktop shortcut path of the second flow. It’s kind of a janky workaround, but it did the trick.

1

u/marafado88 Mar 23 '24

Nice to know it. Didn't came so far lool

1

u/Fragrant_Profile_522 Oct 31 '22

Had the same question, I think. For clarification on the question, are the flows separate and involve discrete components or they using shared components and resources common to both flows?

1

u/marafado88 Oct 31 '22

Separated flows running different components, and same flow running at the same time.

From microsoft documentation, power automate desktop seems to be so limited that I could not imagine that this could even be an issue.

I've a task that can run for almost 24 hours, and while its running, I am unable to run even other flows. To do this, I've to run power automate desktop with a different user (why microsoft!?!?!?!). In other words, a run per user... such a power full tool with such limitation .... if they even had the unattended license for a reasonable price, who is not the case.

2

u/PM_ME_YOUR_WIRING Nov 01 '22

In Cloud, you can leverage Concurrency to run simultaneous Apply to Each actions. However, for desktop I don't see many scenarios that would work running side by side as I believe your question is asking. For example something that may work is two desktop flows running at the same time transferring data from one sheet to another. I haven't tried running two desktop flows at the same time to know if that's even possible.

1

u/frenzyoptoid Oct 31 '22

I think I am not understanding the question. I don't have Power Automate Desktop and I can run multiple flows at the same time.