File Error when trying to save email attachment (xls) to OneDrive

[gillgamm]

I am trying to set up a flow to save an excel attachment to a OneDrive file when received. When it saves to the folder, it's not saving as .xls or .xlsx. When I add either extension to the File Name within the flow, the data is corrupted. What can I do to fix this?

[creativeopinion]

@gillgamm To make the flow dynamic, you shouldn't hard code the file extension. You should take the original file extension and append it to the end of the file name. I cover how to do that in this YT tutorial: Save Email Attachments to SharePoint with Microsoft Power Automate

Power Automate doesn’t have a download attachment from outlook action. In this Power Automate Video tutorial, I’ll show you how to use the Get Attachment (V2) action in combination with the Create File action to get your email attachments onto SharePoint. The Create File action will overwrite any files that already exist with the same name. In this tutorial, I’ll show you how you can append a timestamp to the end of a file name to prevent your file from being overwritten.

I’ll also show you how to set up your flow so that you can trigger it manually while building it so you don’t need to wait for an email to arrive. At the end of the video I’ll show you how adding trigger conditions to your flow can prevent it from triggering if certain conditions aren’t met. Although the final flow uses the When a new email arrives in a shared mailbox (V2) trigger, you can use any of the When a new email arrives triggers for your flow. Adjust this flow to suit your needs!

IN THIS VIDEO:

✅ How to Automate Downloading and Uploading Email Attachments to SharePoint

✅ How to Use a the Get Email (V2) action

✅ How to Use the Get Attachment (V2) action

✅ How to Create Attachment Files using the Create File Action

✅ How to Prevent the Create File Action from Overwriting a File

✅ How to use Split the Filename from its Extension

✅ How to Append a Timestamp to a File Name

✅ How to use the When a New Email Arrives in a Shared Mailbox (V2) trigger

✅ How to use the Convert Time Zone action

✅ How to add Trigger Conditions to your Flow

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Also, to prevent your flow from triggering every time a new email arrives and only trigger your flow when a specific email meets your criteria, you should consider using Trigger Conditions in your flow.

Check out this YT Tutorial for more details on how to add Trigger Conditions to your flow: 4 Ways You Can Use Trigger Conditions in Your Microsoft Power Automate Flow

If you are using an Automated Cloud flow trigger in your flow—you need to consider adding trigger conditions.

Do YOU 🫵 know what a trigger condition is? Trigger conditions can be set in most flow triggers. These conditions you set must be true for the trigger to fire. In this Power Automate tutorial, I’m going to show you how to use trigger conditions in your flows to control when your Power Automate flows trigger.

If your plan has flow run limits—you can avoid triggering your flows unnecessarily by using trigger conditions.

I’ll cover four different flow examples that would benefit from trigger conditions:

⚡️ Triggering a flow when a column is changed to a specific value

⚡️ Triggering a Flow When an Event Updated or Deleted

⚡️ Triggering a Flow When a New Folder is Created

⚡️ Triggering a Flow When a Specific Email is Received I’ll also show you a trick on how to easily create the expressions needed and give you a few tips on how to troubleshoot your flow.

IN THIS VIDEO:

✅ Four different flows that would benefit from trigger conditions

✅ What is a trigger condition?

✅ How to add a trigger condition to your flow

✅ How to trigger a flow when a column is changed to a specific value

✅ How to trigger a flow when an event is updated or Deleted

✅ How to trigger a flow when a new folder is created

✅ How to trigger a flow when a specific email is received

✅ How to troubleshoot a trigger condition

✅ How to prevent case sensitivity issues with a trigger condition

✅ How to use the filter array action to easily compose an expression that can be used in a trigger condition

Hope this helps!

If I helped you solve your problem—please mark my post as a solution ✅.
Consider giving me a 👍 if you liked my response!

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[abm]

Hi @gillgamm 

The reason for the corruption is you need to convert the attachment content to base64ToBinary(). 

Follow the below steps:

Above expression is as follows:

base64ToBinary(outputs('Get_Attachment_(V2)')?['body/contentBytes'])

Thanks

[gillgamm]

I tried the solution but the file is still saving the file this way when it is an Excel attachment.

[abm]

Hi @gillgamm 

I tried this and it did worked perfectly for me.

Thanks

[abm]

Try downloading that excel file from email and see if that opens fine or not.

Thanks

[gillgamm]

The file downloads and opens correctly directly from the email, just not when it's saved to the OneDrive file through the flow.

[gillgamm · Accepted solution]

I did try using the csv extension in the file name and it seemed to work when saving the attachment file through the flow.