Deleting old files from sharepoint folder

[ITDave]

Hi @gamoraes

Hi @ITDave if possible can you open a new Thread?

I am new to Flow, I thought it would be much simpler lol.

Can you give me a template or tell me exactly what i need to make this flow work?

ITDave

[v-bacao-msft]

Hi @ITDave,

Would you please rearrange your needs here and post it out?

Maybe we could also provide the right workaround for you.
Please provide more details about your needs, it is best to attach a screenshot of the Flow configuration.

Best Regards,

[ITDave]

Hi @v-bacao-msft

So I am trying to create a flow to remove old files from a sharepoint folder. The folder in question is a sub folder in the files area of a team. I have created a Recurrence that checks every hour. Get Files (properties only) on the Team area and the Library name is the folder that I want to remove files from. Then I want to delete the files that are older than the condition set. When I test the flow I get an error 404 list/item not found....

Help please 🙂

ITDave

[Esmond]

What I can see from my own experience is that your sub folder is too deep for the flow to run. It only allows 1 level sub folder from the "Documents" folder to work. Do a Test with your Flow where your sub folder is directly under the "Documents" folder with a few files.

[v-bacao-msft]

Hi @ITDave ,

The reason that seems to cause the error is that the configuration of Library Name and List Name does not meet the requirements.

The Get files action can only select the root directory of the Library. This action can only get all the files in the current Library. There is no way to select the specified folder.

You need to use Condition to filter the files in the specified folder.

Please refer to the following method to configure your Flow:

• I created a similar folder on my side, there are two subfolders.

• Use Folder path to determine if the file is a file in the specified folder. I added a condition to determine that it is a folder, because Get files action will also get all the folders.
• If the file meets the set criteria, use Delete file action to delete the file directly.

Expression reference:

utcNow('yyyy-MM-dd')

is greater than

formatDateTime(addMinutes(items('Apply_to_each'),60),'yyyy-MM-dd')

Please take a try. Sorry for late reply.

Best Regards,

[ITDave]

Hi @v-bacao-msft 

I am still having problems. I usered the following condition - As yours:

I get the following error:

Any idea what is going wrong now?

Best regards

ITDave

[v-bacao-msft]

Hi @ITDave ,

My mistake, the expression seems to be missing a part.

Try using the following expression:

formatDateTime(addMinutes(items('Apply_to_each')['Created'],60),'yyyy-MM-dd')

Note: each is lowercase

Please take a try again and let me know if issue still exist.

Best Regards,

[v-bacao-msft]

Hi @ITDave ,

Do you need any other assistance?

Regards,

[ITDave]

Hi @v-bacao-msft 

Im afraid it is still not working. 

ITDave

[v-bacao-msft]

Hi @ITDave ,

Any issue?

Please provide more details.

Best Regards,

[ITDave]

Hi again @v-bacao-msft 

This is the error I now get when running the flow.... 😞

[v-bacao-msft]

Please try this expression:

formatDateTime(addMinutes(items('Apply_to_each')['Created'],60),'yyyy-MM-dd')

Regards,

[ITDave]

Hi @v-bacao-msft,

I think we are getting a little closer! 🙂

This time the flow ran succesfully but no files were deleted. Again the error is below....

Best regards

ITDave

[v-bacao-msft]

Hi @ITDave ,

The reason for false is that one of the conditions set in Condition is not met.

First make sure that the configured Folder path is the same as the Folder path you are currently testing.

In addition, the date not match may be the main reason, you could try to use Compose to output utcNow('yyyy-MM-dd') and formatDateTime(addMinutes(items('Apply_to_each')['Created'],60),'yyyy-MM -dd') values to see if they are equal.

It is recommended to create a new Library or a new folder to test to prevent accidental deletion of files.

Take a try again.

Regards,

[ITDave]

Hi @v-bacao-msft 

So I have gone back to basics:

With the above I can delete ALL files in ALL folders leaving the folder structure intact. I cannot get the FOLDER PATH to read my folder structure. Can we make this work first? The files I want to delete are in the highlighted folder:

What should I type in this box?

I have tried:

\Documents\General\Email Messages\

Documents\General\Email Messages\

\General\Email Messages\

General\Email Messages\

None of the above seem to work... Nothing gets deleted.

If we can sort this part then we can look at checking the files properties for the date?

Best regards

ITDave

[v-bacao-msft]

Hi @ITDave ,

It seems that the Folder path should be Documents/General/Email Messages/.

You can get the Folder path in this way.

Put a file in the specified folder and use Get file properties action to get the Folder path, which is the one you want to configure in your Flow.

Please take a try.

Best Regards,

[ITDave]

Good morning Barry @v-bacao-msft 

We are definately getting somewhere now! I can delete files from the correct folder.

So I tried re-applying the utcNow and the formatDateTime but nothing is getting deleted. I ran compose to get results.

If I change '60' to any other number in the formatDateTime I get the same results:

formatDateTime(addMinutes(items('Apply_to_each')['Created'],1),'yyyy-MM-dd')

Is there a different way of checking when the file was created?

Best regards

ITDave

[v-bacao-msft]

Hi @ITDave ,

Use such an Expression to get Created Date:

items('Apply_to_each')['Created']

formatDateTime(items('Apply_to_each')['Created'],'yyyy-MM-dd')

I think your needs have been basically solved, you can consider creating new files to do some testing.

Regards,