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ArunkumarK
Frequent Visitor

Retrieve email messages from outlook [Power Automate Desktop]

Hi Everyone,

 

I am trying to save the outlook attachments into OneDrive using Power Automate Desktop. I am getting an error in the initial setup itself as "Failed to retrieve email messages from Outlook".

 

ArunkumarK_0-1614273684404.png

 

1 ACCEPTED SOLUTION

Accepted Solutions

Hi @Expiscornovus ,

 

Finally found the reason for the error!!!. You will smile a lot after understood the reason.

Actually, I didn't mention any values for From, To, Subject etc., it seems that any one of the fields to be filled for running the outlook instance. Atleast Microsoft should display any asterisk symbol or any information in the error to understand better.

Just wanna share the problem and solution to you.

 

Thank you so much for your active support !!!

View solution in original post

21 REPLIES 21
Expiscornovus
Most Valuable Professional
Most Valuable Professional

Hi @ArunkumarK,

 

Can you check if the account value is exactly the same as the name of the Outlook account (data file name)?

 

You can find the account name in the account settings of Outlook.
accountsettingsexchange.png

 

Can you also double check if the Mail folder value is using the full folder path format?

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-gb/power-automate/desktop-flows/actions-reference/outlook#retrieveemai...

 



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Hi @Expiscornovus ,

 

Thanks for your reply.

Yes I mentioned the same account name. In my case account name and the email address are the same.

Expiscornovus
Most Valuable Professional
Most Valuable Professional

Hi @ArunkumarK,

 

Can you share a screenshot of the configuration of your Retrieve email message from Outlook action from your desktop flow setup?

 

Or alternatively copy the action and paste the configuration as code in here.

 

Below is an example of my action which I used for testing.

Outlook.RetrieveEmails Instance: OutlookInstance Account: OutlookDataFileName MailFolder: MailFolder EmailsToRetrieve: Outlook.RetrieveMessagesMode.Unread MarkAsRead: False SubjectContains: $'''PIM''' Messages=> RetrievedEmails

 



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Screenshot:

ArunkumarK_1-1614345094484.png

 

Copied the Action Items:

Outlook.RetrieveEmails Instance: OutlookInstance Account: <REMOVEDBYME> MailFolder: $'''Inbox''' EmailsToRetrieve: Outlook.RetrieveMessagesMode.All MarkAsRead: True Messages=> RetrievedEmails

 

Error Details:

Exception has been thrown by the target of an invocation.: Robin.Core.ActionException: Failed to retrieve email messages from Outlook ---> System.Reflection.TargetInvocationException: Exception has been thrown by the target of an invocation. ---> System.Runtime.InteropServices.COMException: Error HRESULT E_FAIL has been returned from a call to a COM component.
--- End of inner exception stack trace ---
at System.RuntimeType.InvokeDispMethod(String name, BindingFlags invokeAttr, Object target, Object[] args, Boolean[] byrefModifiers, Int32 culture, String[] namedParameters)
at System.RuntimeType.InvokeMember(String name, BindingFlags bindingFlags, Binder binder, Object target, Object[] providedArgs, ParameterModifier[] modifiers, CultureInfo culture, String[] namedParams)
at System.Type.InvokeMember(String name, BindingFlags invokeAttr, Binder binder, Object target, Object[] args, CultureInfo culture)
at Robin.Modules.Outlook.Actions.OutlookActions.GetProperty(Object o, String propertyName)
at Robin.Modules.Outlook.Actions.OutlookActions.RetrieveEmailMessagesFromOutlook(Variant outlookInstance, Variant account, Variant mailFolder, Variant fromContains, Variant toContains, Variant subjectContains, Variant bodyContains, Variant sentSince, Variant sentUpTo, Variant saveAttachmentsInto, Variant& retrievedEmails, Int32 retrieveCategory, Int32 attachmentsOption, Boolean markAsRead)
--- End of inner exception stack trace ---
at Robin.Modules.Outlook.Actions.RetrieveEmailMessages.Execute(ActionContext context)
at Robin.Runtime.Engine.ActionRunner.RunAction(String action, Dictionary`2 inputArguments, Dictionary`2 outputArguments, IActionStatement statement)

Expiscornovus
Most Valuable Professional
Most Valuable Professional

Hi @ArunkumarK,

 

I can reproduce this issue when I try to retrieve all email messages from my Inbox.

 

Can you try and use some other conditions? When you switch to only unread emails form the Inbox does it work in your desktop flow?

Outlook.RetrieveEmails Instance: OutlookInstance Account: OutlookDataFileName MailFolder: $'''Inbox''' EmailsToRetrieve: Outlook.RetrieveMessagesMode.Unread MarkAsRead: False Messages=> RetrievedEmails

 



Happy to help out! 🙂

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Hi @Expiscornovus ,

I tried both as well but same error.

And just FYI, Mark as unread options is to flag the unread emails as read. our action will read all the email messages irrelevant to read or unread emails. Please correct me if i am wrong.

Expiscornovus
Most Valuable Professional
Most Valuable Professional

Hi @ArunkumarK,

 

Sorry that I wasn't clear. I was talking about setting the Retrieve field to a different option.

 

It feels like we are both hitting a limit/time-out issue or something like that.

 

 

retrievefield.png

 

To be clear, my inbox folder has 10000+ items. Only retrieving the unread email messages reduces that query a lot.



Happy to help out! 🙂

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Oh Apologies I was misunderstood.

 

As suggested, tried the options but the same error. Is there anything security settings needs to changed in outlook?

 

ArunkumarK_0-1614349636658.png

 

ArunkumarK_1-1614349683179.png

 

Expiscornovus
Most Valuable Professional
Most Valuable Professional

Hi @ArunkumarK,

 

I am not aware of any additional security settings required. You can already access the same account and Inbox in your Outlook, correct?

 

Have you tested any of the other outlook actions? You might want to run a test with for instance the send email through Outlook via that same account. This way you can troubleshoot if it is an account related issue.

 

testoutlookmessage.png



Happy to help out! 🙂

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No, there is no issues with the outlook account. Just for additional investigation I asked for. Actually, I can access and all are working fine with the outlook when I used Power Automate web, but its not working in Power Automate Desktop.

FYI, I will receive csv files to my email daily and needs to load into sql, but in web version, csv options are not available hence moved to desktop version.

Hi @Expiscornovus ,

 

Finally found the reason for the error!!!. You will smile a lot after understood the reason.

Actually, I didn't mention any values for From, To, Subject etc., it seems that any one of the fields to be filled for running the outlook instance. Atleast Microsoft should display any asterisk symbol or any information in the error to understand better.

Just wanna share the problem and solution to you.

 

Thank you so much for your active support !!!

Expiscornovus
Most Valuable Professional
Most Valuable Professional

Hi @ArunkumarK,

 

Great to hear that you have found the solution 🙂



Happy to help out! 🙂

Interested in more #PowerAutomate #SharePointOnline or #MicrosoftCopilotStudio content?
Visit my blog, Subscribe to my YouTube channel or Follow me on Twitter


CesarRamirez
Advocate I
Advocate I

Hi everyone,

I tried what @ArunkumarK said, e.g. like this:
CesarRamirez_0-1617831447308.png

It seems works because no error is generated, but the RetrivedEmails response is empty when it shouldn't be.

I tried put a empty variable (see example below), but the error "Failed to retrieve email messages from Outlook"  again appear.

CesarRamirez_2-1617831928447.png ( with: %' '% too)

CesarRamirez_3-1617832103652.png

Thanks for any help.

 

 

Those arguments are optional, so there might be something wrong with your other arguments.

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/power-automate/desktop-flows/actions-reference/outlook#retrieveemai...


--
Was this helpful? Then give it a thumbs up and/or select it as the solution!

Thanks @fraenK 
I think all my required arguments are ok:
- The Outlook instance is created by Launch Outlook Action:

CesarRamirez_0-1617896526294.png

- I verified muy Account in Account Settings:

CesarRamirez_1-1617896968322.png

- And the main Mail folder in my case is:

CesarRamirez_2-1617897050083.png

However I tried creating another folder and the same error is generated.

It works fine for me so if the values are correct, maybe there is something wrong with your Outlook/Office installation? Quick or online repair?


--
Was this helpful? Then give it a thumbs up and/or select it as the solution!

@fraenK  could you check your Programmatic Access configuration please?, in:
- Outlook Options > Trust Center > Trust Center Settings > Programmatic Access

CesarRamirez_0-1618272856277.png

I believe it could be this, and I would like compare with your configuration that works fine.
Thanks in advance.

In my Outlook settings the first option is selected


--
Was this helpful? Then give it a thumbs up and/or select it as the solution!

Hi everyone,

The problem was "Programmatic Access Security" settings, after selecting the first option it was solved and the Outlook Actions works fine.

[SOLUTION]:

CesarRamirez_1-1620256748806.png

Tks,

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