Email Alert Triggered in Scheduled flow has blank merge fields for Custom fields Only

Question

A Scheduled Flow sends an email alert. The ID and Name fields show up in the email alert, but the other merge (custom) fields do not.

The email alert fired other means works as desired. The Automated Process. I assume it is a permissions issue for the automated process users profile...or the fields specifically.

But I can't seem to access the custom objects via the process outlined here Automated Process User Profile Permissions

So I made a permission set and granted the access that way...

/setup/layout/flsedit.jsp?id={autoproc_profile_id}&type={sObjectName}

I also tried to assign read to the custom object fields in the field level security for the automated process user... /setup/layout/flsdetail.jsp?id={autoproc_profile_id}&type={sObjectId}

but the merge fields for custom fields remain blank when the scheduled flow sends the email alert.

Update: The issue appears to only affect Visualforce. Using an HTML Template the merge fields are populated.

Answer 1

Sadly, using VF emails do not work when merge fields are used and the context user is Automated Process.

Workarounds:

1. Use text or HTML emails
2. Use a VF email component with its own component controller; you'll need to grant explicit access to the component controller's Apex class to Automated Process user as this does not occur by default (see - Automated Process User Profile Permissions) - If you need a merge field in the subject line .. this won't help

Known Issues:

• VF Workflow Emails are Blank when the records are Last Modified by "Automated Process" user
• Visualforce email template fails to render formula field when accessed by the automated process user

Related SFSE posts on same topic

• VF Email templates Boolean merge fields Automated Process User is always false
• Salesforce doesn't merge fields on email sent in platform event context

Answer 2

Don't know if anyone is following this one still but I had the same issue with a visualforce email template missing some merge fields values when sending an email alert via an scheduled-triggered flow. I solved it by:

1. Adding the attribute, renderUsingSystemContextWithoutSharing="True", to the header of the Visualforce email template (e.g. <messaging:emailTemplate renderUsingSystemContextWithoutSharing="True" subject="blah blah" etc...)
2. Following the steps outline in Automated Process User Profile Permissions