Power Automate "Find files in folder" cannot find newly uploaded files for some users

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Posted on by PS-30120443-0

We are experiencing an issue with the "Find files in folder" action in Power Automate using the OneDrive for Business connector.

Issue Details:

- Newly uploaded files cannot be found by the "Find files in folder" action for some users.

- The same files become discoverable approximately 24 hours later without any changes.

- The issue does not affect all users.

- Folder path and permissions have been verified and are correct.

- We have confirmed that the files exist in OneDrive immediately after upload.

Expected:

The "Find files in folder" action should be able to locate newly uploaded files shortly after they are uploaded.

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MS.Ragavendar 7,613 Super User 2026 Season 2 on at

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@PS-30120443-0,

I haven't encountered this issue earlier just for the understanding.

If the process has to run for the Newly Uploaded files, Why Event based trigger can't be used why we are proceeding with the Manual trigger.

Cant we use the Sharepoint for processing the files?

Have you tried with searching graph / search api (Http Request) to locate the files.

I am not sure is there anything causing indexing issue on the newly created items. Only this might be the reason its not appearing in the results.

MS Links

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/graph/api/driveitem-search?view=graph-rest-1.0&tabs=http

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/graph/search-concept-files

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Haque 4,004 Super User 2026 Season 2 on at

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Hi @PS-30120443-0,

Once files are newly uploaded to OneDrive they become immediately visiblie in the folder but OneDrive services uses indexing pipeline to make files discoverable by action like "Find files in folder". The indexing process may take up to 24 hours to sync with cloud - this explains file is discovereable only after some delay. Yes, the delay can very by file size, tenant, user and load on the server. Delay can also vary based on the folder syncing to different devices also - it is important. Not all users are affected equally. Probably becuase difference in permissions, cahching or tenant replicaiton timing.

What can be done:

1. Let's add a delay (e.g., 1-5 minutes) before the "Find files in folder" action or implement a retry loop that attempts to find the files multiple times with pauses in between.

2. If you know the file names or paths, use actions like "Get file content using path" or "Get file metadata" instead of relying on "Find files in folder."
3. Occasionally, indexing delays can be caused by service issues. Monitor the Microsoft 365 admin center for any ongoing incidents.

Reference(s):

One drive limitations.

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Raghav Mishra 277 Super User 2026 Season 2 on at

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Hi @PS-30120443-0, your symptoms line up with a documented design detail of that action rather than a fault in your flow.

Root cause

The OneDrive for Business connector reference describes Find files in folder as an operation that "finds files within a folder using search or name pattern match". Because it goes through search, it depends on the search index being populated rather than reading the folder directly. That is exactly why a file is present in OneDrive straight after upload but only becomes discoverable to the action some time later.

Use a direct enumeration action instead

List files in folder - documented as getting the list of files and subfolders in a folder. No search involved, so no index dependency. Filter by name inside the flow.

Get file metadata using path or Get file content using path - the best option when you already know the file name or path.

When a file is created trigger - event driven rather than polled search. Note the documented limit: this trigger skips every file bigger than 50 MB.

Why it only affects some users

Two documented limitations of this connector are worth checking against your affected users:

Cross-drive functionality is not supported. The connector can only operate on the account used to make the connection and on data owned by that account. That limitation explicitly includes files and folders added with Add to OneDrive or Add shortcut. If some users are working in a shortcut to someone else's drive, the action will never see their files.

The file picker displays a maximum of 200 items per folder, which can make troubleshooting misleading in busy folders.

If the files actually live in a shared document library rather than personal OneDrive, move the flow to the SharePoint connector instead - that removes the cross-drive limitation entirely.

References

OneDrive for Business connector reference - see the limitations section and the action list

SharePoint connector reference

Found this helpful? Please mark ✅ "Does this answer your question?" so others searching for the same issue can find it quickly. A 👍 on "Was this reply helpful?" or a ♥ Like is also much appreciated!

Raghav Mishra - LinkedIn| PowerAI Labs

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