Short tip on debugging flows…

Hey Everyone,

Hope you had a great week 🙂

This week’s tip is a short one that has to do with debugging flows.

Any time an end user sees an error message like the one below (when a flow fails):

Salesforce will send an error email to either the user who last modified the flow, or everyone on the Apex Exception email recipient list.

This is typically works well, but sometimes, we’re not on that list.

In those scenarios how do we as admins know if something is breaking?

Answer: Failed Flow Interviews.

You can search “failed” in the Quick Find (in setup) and you’ll see a Paused and Failed Flow Interview option.

Click on it, and then toggle the list view to be All Failed Flow Interviews.

This will show a list of every flow that has attempted to run in the environment, but for some reason broke down during execution.

Further, if you click on the blue hyperlink it will open a debug log of the how exactly the Flow Failed!

As a consultant, this is invaluable for me when I’m trying to understand errors reported by users.

I only need the name of the user and the approximate time of the error and I can go find an exact log of what went wrong for a particular error (if it’s flow related).

This is also an extremely effective way of finding out the pain points of an existing environment.

That’s because some flow types – like Scheduled Flows – may not be configured to send out an error message at all if they fail.

In that case, this utility is an excellent way to spot automations that are “failing silently” (like scheduled flows).

Additionally, you could imagine a Salesforce Admin interview question such as “How would you quickly get up to speed in a new environment?”

Answering “One thing I look at when working in a new environment are Failed Flow Interviews. This helps me understand where some of the existing automations are breaking down, and gives me a sense of how I can quickly add value.”

This feature is one of a few key bullets to mention which reflect your excellent understanding of the platform.

And that’s a wrap.

Have a great weekend!

Best,

Nick