Stop Workflow Triggering When SystemUpdate is called

Question

I am using SystemUpdate in CSOM to update list items. It works fine and does not update modified date and modified by field. But it will trigger workflow attached to the list. Is there a way to stop SystemUpdate from triggering workflow?

If there is not a way to do it, what is my best alternative? There are many sites and lists and I would like to avoid going to each list and disable/removing workflows.

Answer 1

I don't think this is possible in CSOM. It unfortunately calls the updated workflow. System Update in SSOM does not fire the updated workflows however. So if you have the option of switching you could use system updates. If you want to do this in CSOM you could use some hidden fields to track if the item has been updated by a workflow and act accordingly.

Answer 2

It was answered by Lee__li here https://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/75ff257b-ed2d-4281-91be-88a9cdb334fe/stop-workflow-triggering-when-systemupdate-is-called-sharepoint-online?forum=sharepointdevelopment

My workflow was deployed using a App and I had to load the app web to get subscriptions.

Web web = context.Web;
var list = web.Lists.GetByTitle("MyList");
context.Load(list);
context.ExecuteQuery();
var workflowServicesManager = new WorkflowServicesManager(context, context.Web);
var workflowSubscriptionService = workflowServicesManager.GetWorkflowSubscriptionService();
// get all workflow associations
var workflowAssociations = workflowSubscriptionService.EnumerateSubscriptionsByList(list.Id);
context.Load(workflowAssociations);
context.ExecuteQuery();
var wf = workflowAssociations[0];
List<string> eventTypes = new List<string>() { "WorkflowStart" };
wf.EventTypes = eventTypes;
workflowSubscriptionService.PublishSubscriptionForList(wf, list.Id);
var listitem = list.GetItemById(3);
listitem["Title"] = DateTime.Now.ToString();
listitem.SystemUpdate();
context.ExecuteQuery();
eventTypes = new List<string>() { "WorkflowStart", "ItemUpdated" };//ItemUpdated
wf.EventTypes = eventTypes;
workflowSubscriptionService.PublishSubscriptionForList(wf, list.Id);
context.ExecuteQuery();