Power Automate – How to export attachments from SharePoint List Item

SUDHARSAN KESAVANARAYANANSharePoint Architect
CERTIFIED EXPERT
Microsoft MVP Office Dev focussed on Azure services, M365, SharePoint On-Premise & SharePoint Online, Power Automate, Power Apps, LiveTiles
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How can we use Power Automate to export attachments from SharePoint List item
Introduction
Hi Friends, let us examine how we can use Power Automate to export attachments from the SharePoint List item. To explain the usage of this scenario, let us extend this Cloud Flow to send the attachments in Email. Perhaps you can use the same concept of exporting the attachments and do the following
  1. Send the attachment over an email (will see in this post)
  2. Store all the attachments in a document library.
  3. Store all the attachments in an Onedrive folder.
Note The flow which I am gonna show you will use manual trigger but the same can be used with automatic triggers like When an item is added or modified etc.
Focus on the Flow
Consider a sample list with only the Title field and the attachments for the list has to be enabled. Add an item with a single or multiple attachments.
Let us start designing the flow
  • Create an Instant cloud flow, give a unique name and select the trigger Manual trigger a flow
  • Add an action named Initialize Variable as an array to store all the attachments from a list item.
  • Add an action named Get attachments and fill in the following properties
    • Site Address - SharePoint site where the list exists
    • List Name - Name of the list
    • Id - List item ID to export the attachment(s)
  • Add an action named Apply to each to traverse through the attachments and store the result in an array that is initialized in the above action.
  • Inside the Apply to each action add actions one below the other
    • Get attachment content - The above action Get attachments will not return the contents, but it returns the File Identifier and other metadata information. Using File Identifier we can get the attachment content.
    • Append to array variable - Append the Attachment name and Attachment content in the below format as a JSON array. The format mentioned below should be as it is without changing the key names. The same format is expected in the email action which we will add below the Apply to each action.
{   "Name": <Attachment Name>,   "ContentBytes": <Attachment content>
}
  • Add an action named Send an email (v2) to send the exported attachments to any user. Fill in the following properties. You have to collapse the advanced option for the attachments property.
    • To - To email of the user
    • Subject - Email subject
    • Body - Some email content
    • Attachments - Change it to dynamic values and pass the array variable as shown below
See how easy it is. Are you expecting anything? we are done with the flow. Execute the flow and enjoy the outcome. Happy Flowing...
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SUDHARSAN KESAVANARAYANANSharePoint Architect
CERTIFIED EXPERT
Microsoft MVP Office Dev focussed on Azure services, M365, SharePoint On-Premise & SharePoint Online, Power Automate, Power Apps, LiveTiles

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