Best way to copy list item to another list using SharePoint designer workflow in 2 steps

In this “copy list item to another list” article, we will learn about how to copy a SharePoint list item to another list using the SharePoint designer workflow automatically.

The use cases of this requirement are many – one of them is if we want to create some event automatically in the calendar list based on the value updated in another custom list, we can develop a SharePoint designer list level workflow on the custom list which will be triggered automatically on item creation and modification.

Now, let’s see how this can be implemented.

Copy list item to another list using SharePoint designer workflow

This is my test custom list with the column “Title”, “Column1” and “Column2”.

Below is my calendar list where we can see two events are created – these two events are created automatically through the workflow attached to the above custom list.

Workflow Details: SharePoint designer workflow

Update items in another list using the SharePoint designer workflow.

Workflow Explanation: Copy list item to another list

In the if condition I am checking the value of the “Title” column in the calendar list where I have set the hardcoded “Test1” value – this is to match the target item i.e. calendar list before updating from the custom list which item the workflow should update – here I am just checking if the “Title” column has the value of “Test1” – when the workflow runs on the custom list, it will update the calendar list item where Title equals to “Test1”

Notes:

• Ideally, in real-time to make this complete automated, we should have a common column in both the custom list and target list (here, calendar list) so that we can dynamically check the condition before updating the target list, here in the above demo just updating by checking the hardcoded value for the “Title” in the calendar list for the proof of concept.

Now click on the update item configuration. In the top as mentioned below, select the target list, here it is a calendar list. Then select each column from the calendar list which you want to update and in the value header set the corresponding column from the source list that is a custom list by clicking on the “Add” button. And in the “Find the List Item” section “Title” from the calendar list and value as “Test1“. That’s it, done!!!

Similary, as like “Update Item” action we can use the “Create Item” action if we want add a new item to the list instead of updating.

SharePoint designer workflow – Start Options: SharePoint designer workflow trigger

SharePoint designer workflow trigger: To trigger the SharePoint designer workflow,  click on the “Workflow Settings” from the workflow ribbon, then we will get the below screen. Go to the “Start Options” section, then click on the below checkbox:

• Allow this workflow to be manually started.
• Start workflow automatically when an item is created
• Start workflow automatically when an item is changed

Irrespective of the above workflow trigger settings – Start Options, if we create or update any item using the system account, workflow will not be triggered, even we cannot start the workflow manually using tthe system account – this is the limitation of SharePoint desinger workflow.

Summary: Copy the list item to another list using SharePoint workflow

Thus in this article, we have learned the below concept:

• How to update a list item in another list using the SharePoint designer workflow.
• How to use the create item action in another list using the SharePoint designer workflow.
• How to configure the “Define Workflow Lookup” in the designer workflow.
• How to configure the “Update List Item” action in the designer workflow.
• How to configure the workflow start options settings in the designer workflow.

See Also: SharePoint Online tutorial

You may also like the below SharePoint Online tutorials:

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• List Template IDs In SharePoint Online/SharePoint 2019/2016/2013/2010/2007
• Creating a workflow by using SharePoint Designer 2013 and the SharePoint Workflow platform

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SP Doctor

I am your SharePoint and Power Platform doctor and guide. Sharing knowledge with my fellow colleagues, friends, and the tech community makes me utmost happy in my job.

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