Update of parentaccountid into CRM from ADF

Vidyashree Dinesh 0 Reputation points
2026-09-16T10:54:54.49+00:00

I'm trying to update records from a .csv file through ADF copy activity into CRM. It's working fine for the GUIDs present for parentaccountid and updating accordingly. However, when a blank value is sent for this field, it's not removing the existing value in the CRM.

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  1. Radon 0 Reputation points
    2026-09-16T11:22:10.13+00:00

    Clearing a Dataverse lookup field isn’t handled like a normal update at the API level. Dataverse often ignores a regular update with a null value for lookup fields. You actually need to make a separate “remove reference” call for that specific field instead of just updating it to null. ADF’s Copy activity doesn’t make that kind of API call, so even if you have the null handling configured correctly, it may never actually clear the lookup.

    A workaround is to add a Web Activity or Azure Function that calls the Dataverse API directly and removes the reference for rows where the field is blank. The Copy activity can’t do this by itself.

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  2. AI answer

    2026-09-16T10:55:08.5133333+00:00

    Set the Dynamics/CRM sink ignoreNullValues to FALSE in the Copy activity. With FALSE, ADF updates the destination field to NULL during upsert or update operations. With TRUE, existing values are left unchanged, which matches the behavior being seen.

    For this scenario:

    1. Open the Copy activity sink settings for the Dynamics CRM/Dataverse destination.
    2. Check the ignoreNullValues setting.
    3. Ensure it is set to false or left at its default value of FALSE.
    4. Send the parentaccountid column as null/blank from the source so the sink can write NULL to CRM.

    Important detail: parentaccountid is a nullable GUID lookup field, so it can be set to NULL.

    If the source is a CSV, verify that the blank value is being interpreted as null by the pipeline. If ADF is passing an empty string instead of null, CRM may not clear the lookup field.

    References:

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