Summary
The OneDrive for Business "Convert file" action (HTML → PDF) has worked
reliably for approximately 1.5 years with no CSS-related issues. Today,
2026-09-04, it started intermittently failing to apply CSS rules declared
inside the <style> block in the <head> of the source HTML — while inline
styles (style="...") continue to render correctly.
This is the FIRST time this issue has occurred. It is not a known recurring
problem on our side; nothing changed in our HTML template, CSS, or flow
configuration before today.
Environment
- Power Automate (Cloud Flow)
- Actions: OneDrive for Business – Create file (HTML) → Convert file (to PDF) → Create file (PDF)
- Trigger: Power Apps
- Volume: hundreds of conversions/day
- History: same HTML/CSS template in production for ~1.5 years with no prior issues
Timeline — All events on 2026-09-04
- 08:23 AM: PDF generated correctly, full CSS applied.
- 08:56 AM: Same HTML/CSS structure (only form data differs) — PDF generated with all <style> block CSS missing. Only inline styles and isolated attribute-selector rules (input[type='checkbox']:checked) were applied.
- Confirmed via diff that the two source HTML files are byte-identical in <head>/<style> — only form data values (names, checkbox states, signature images) differ. This rules out the HTML/CSS as the cause.
- Later: after some time, a subsequent test conversion succeeded with full styling applied, suggesting the issue had resolved.
- Shortly after: ran several more test conversions with the same template. Only 1 out of several produced a correctly styled PDF; the rest again had missing <style> CSS.
- As of now, the issue is intermittent and ongoing today.
Steps to Reproduce
- Generate an HTML file containing a <style> block with element selectors (html, body), classes (e.g. .bg-gray-200), and attribute selectors (input[type='checkbox']:checked).
- Save the HTML file via OneDrive "Create file".
- Convert it to PDF via OneDrive "Convert file".
- Save the resulting PDF via "Create file".
- Repeat several times with the same HTML/CSS structure (only form data changes between runs) — result is inconsistent between runs.
Expected Behavior
All CSS rules declared in <style> are consistently applied in every
resulting PDF, matching how the HTML renders in a browser, and matching the
behavior this flow has had for the past 1.5 years.
Actual Behavior
- Same HTML/CSS template produces correctly styled PDFs on some runs and PDFs missing all <style> block CSS on other runs, with no pattern tied to the HTML/CSS content itself (confirmed identical via diff).
- Success rate today has been very low (1 correct PDF out of several test runs).
Evidence
- Diff of source HTML from the 08:23 AM (good) and 08:56 AM (bad) runs: 0 differences in <head>/<style>, confirming the CSS/template is not the cause.
- This matches community reports of the OneDrive/SharePoint HTML-to-PDF conversion backend having intermittent, non-deterministic rendering issues, with Microsoft having previously confirmed internal service incidents (ICM tickets) on this exact conversion path.
Impact
- Business-critical safety/compliance PDF forms (work-at-height permits) are currently being generated with missing layout/branding styles.
- High volume (hundreds/day) makes manual QA of every PDF impractical.
- Actively affecting production today.
Priority
HIGH — first-time occurrence today, actively affecting production, very low
success rate in same-day testing.