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Read-Only Field Restrictions for Flow Record Processing
Fields the running user can't edit are inaccessible to the flow during record creation and updates. This happens when the user lacks field-level permissions or when the field is a system field.
Required Editions
| View supported editions. |
To determine which fields are system fields, see the Object Reference for Salesforce and Lightning Platform. To determine which other fields aren’t editable, review the running user’s permissions.
How Did Read-Only Fields Get in My Record Variable?
| If the Variable Is Populated by ... | The Variable Includes ... |
|---|---|
| A Get Records element, where the field values are stored together | Id and any other read-only fields that you choose to include. |
| An Assignment or Get Records element, where field values are stored in separate variables | Any read-only fields that you choose to include. |
| A process, workflow rule, or Start element | All the object’s system fields and any fields that the running user doesn’t have permission to edit. The variable includes every field for the object by default. |
What Do I Do When My Record Variable Includes Read-Only Fields?
For each read-only field that’s stored in your record variable:
- Determine whether the flow uses that field anywhere. If it doesn’t, update the flow so
that it doesn’t store a value for that field. This suggestion applies only if an element
in the flow, such as Get Records, populates the variable.
For example, a Get Records element stores CreatedByDate, but no other elements reference that field. You update the Get Records element so that it’s no longer storing CreatedByDate.
- If the read-only field is referenced in the flow, give the running users the permissions needed for the flow to execute its operations.
- If you can’t give the running users the needed permissions for a field, update the flow so that it doesn’t try to update that field.
Here's an example: Using an Update Records element, a flow updates several fields on an account. While your users can edit Description and Account Rating, they can’t edit Owner ID or LastModifiedDate. To prevent the flow from failing at run time:
- Give your users “Edit” permission for Owner ID.
- Copy only the writable field values (Description, Account Rating, and Owner ID) from the original
record variable into a new record variable. Reference the new record variable in the Update
Records element.
Copying only the writable field values ensures that the flow doesn’t try to set a value for LastModifiedDate at run time.
