Recover lost desktop flows?

[steefcap]

I lost access to all of my desktop flows when our company switched from our Azure server, apparently it was a change of accounts which left mine to be thrown into some great void... not sure all the details, but I do not have any of my 44 flows suddenly, and it is as if I have a new account.

Anyway, I noticed a substantial amount of data in this directory: C:\Users\[user]\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Power Automate Desktop\Console\Workspace

Is there a potential method of recovery using these files?  Or perhaps a gentle dweller of the clouds could be able to find my lost flows in the mist..?

Thanks folks.

[MichaelAnnis]

Do you have a paid version, can you access them from the power automate website?

[steefcap]

It was a trial of the paid version, I seem to have lost that account, even though it's all under the same email... it was the "Work account" and I think I'm back on a "Personal account" with no way to switch back. I used to be able to see my flows from the website.

[MichaelAnnis]

I would try to contact Microsoft first. You can recover if you have everything you need in that folder, but it is very exhausting. 

you have to copy and paste the text of each subflow one at a time and you can paste that text right into a subflow. Images should still work, but I would t be surprised if you lost any UIs.

I would copy that folder as soon as possible, because I am not sure how long they stay there. For example, I only have 5 in that folder, but I have about 40-50 flows. 

[steefcap]

I guess I need to chat with IT and folks here to start forking over $40 just so I can contact support.. In the meantime, I'm gonna assume the worst, as that's how this has been progressing so far.  How do I go about the exhausting process of recovery from those cached files?

I have attempted copying and pasting everything from each of the files in one of those folders... I've attempted copying and pasting the entire directory into Power Automate, using Open With on each file... Nothing seems to work.

The files I've been trying to extract and seem fairly consistent in each directory, aside from some having sub directories (I shall assume subflows) with similar files:

    controlRepo.appmask
    imageRepo.imgrepo
    package
    pData
    project.manifest
    script.robin

 None of those files' content seem to be able to paste into a flow in Power Automate.

I have about 33 directories collected from multiple computers running these flows, so I'm hopeful I have something worth recovering.

[MichaelAnnis]

The primary one is called script.robin, open this in notepad by opening a blank notepad then drag it out and drop it into the blank open notepad.

It should look like this:

A "CALL" is a Run Subflow Action

A "FUNCTION" is a new subflow (each subflow, you have to create yourself):

But then, you can copy everything immediately after FUNCTION to immediately before END FUNCTION, and paste it inside of a subflow in PAD.  You should see all your actions reappear.  

So, when I copy:

I paste it into PAD and get this:

[TasoulasNikos]

In addition, if you have Ui selectors or images and you have access to controlrepo and imagerepo files.
If you write in a text file 

WAIT 1

# [ControlRepository][PowerAutomateDesktop]

and under that copy-paste the component of your controlrepo file then you would have something like 

Now if you will copy-paste the component of your new text file into a sub-flow it would produce a Wait 1 sec action and in your control repository you would find all of your Selectors

[dinuk]

Hey I have a similar problem what above discussion. I have deleted two important flows their inside included actions.. so do you know how to recover it?

[Jamar_Forsythe]

Recovery options will follow your tenant settings. Contact support if you are unable to get back into your account. If you have an Environment URL/ID of the old flows or even a Run URL/ID of the old flows, that can be enough for us to verify if the old flows still exist in a manageable way. 

[simon_tao_cn]

Excuse me, my desktop flow was disappeared suddenly this morning after I restarted my computer. Can you please help to check whether it's possible to recover it ? The environment ID is : Default-ca2aecff-bc6d-4032-9161-fe56057fd193. And the flow ID should be: 292e969f-a392-4e4f-88e8-82bca7d86ef0

Thanks! 

[hosino]

I tried your method and found the file, select from FUNCTION to END, copy and paste it inside of in PAD, but failed. Why? Is latest version not support this method?

[Agnius]

What exactly failed? Did it not paste anything? If that is the case, it might be because of incompatible versions being used when the file was cached and now when you're trying to paste it. Try pasting one action/line at a time, or in smaller chunks. Most actions should work, and maybe only some will actually fail due to incompatible syntax. You will then need to create those few missing actions manually.

Also, if you had several sub-flows in your flow, you need to paste them individually. Find the code chunks between each FUNCTION...END placeholders and copy them separately.

[hosino]

Thanks, I can copy now.

But seem all ui and photo layer disappeared.

Any wany to recover?

[Agnius]

Try looking further down the file where the controls repository resides. You need to paste that together with the actions that interact with the UI elements in question.