Answered

Downloading Files Automatically from A SharePoint Site You Do Not Own

(1) Share

Report

Posted on by AM-10061453-0

As mentioned, my team is trying to leverage Power Automate to download files based off effective dates/ receive an email of these new files being placed. I keep receiving an error when I create the flow and I think it is because I do not own/have edit access to the SharePoint page. Is there a loop around this? Context SharePoint is going away with alerts starting July and I am trying to receive alerts.

Categories:

Building flows

Power Automate Desktop

Connector development

Using flows

Using connectors

General topics

I have the same question (0)

All responses (4)

Answers (0)

Sort by

The core issue: connector access follows the connection account

When you use Power Automate's SharePoint connector, the connection runs under the credentials of whichever account authenticated it. If that account doesn't have at least Read access to the SharePoint site, the flow will fail — there's no bypass for this. This is by design; per Microsoft Learn's Use SharePoint and Power Automate to build workflows, connector access is governed by the authenticated user's SharePoint permissions.

Your options

Approach	What's needed
Request read access from the site owner	Simplest path — ask the SharePoint admin to grant your account (or a service account) at least Read permission
Ask the site owner to build/own the flow	They run the flow under their credentials which already have access
Use a service account	IT provisions a shared account with read access; you authenticate the connector with that account
SharePoint alerts migration	For the SharePoint alerts retirement, Microsoft recommends Power Automate flows as the replacement

There is no way to read files from a SharePoint site without having at least Read access — this is a SharePoint permission requirement, not a Power Automate limitation.

Next step

Work with your SharePoint admin to get your account (or a dedicated service account) granted read-only access to the relevant library, then set up your flow using the "When a file is created or modified" trigger.

References

Use SharePoint and Power Automate to build workflows – Microsoft Learn

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

Was this reply helpful? Yes No

AM-10061453-0 4 on at

Like
a
(0)

Report
Copy link

Link copied!

Hey @RaghavMishra! Thanks for replying! What if the current Site Access is Everyone Except External Users, that is already Read available, or does it require personalized user Read access and if so why? Thanks!

Was this reply helpful? Yes No
Suggested answer

RaghavMishra 261 on at

Like
a
(0)

Report
Copy link

Link copied!
Hey! Great follow-up question — this is an important distinction.

“Everyone Except External Users” — Does it work for Power Automate?

Short answer: Yes, in most cases it should work — with one important caveat.

What “Everyone Except External Users” actually means

Per Microsoft Learn’s Default SharePoint groups, “Everyone except external users” is a special SharePoint group that automatically includes all internal users in your organization (anyone with a licensed Microsoft 365 account in your tenant). So as long as the account used to authenticate the Power Automate SharePoint connector is an internal organizational account, it is already a member of this group and therefore has Read access at the site level.

The catch — connector authentication is per-user

Even though the group grants broad internal access, the Power Automate SharePoint connector still authenticates as a specific named user account (whoever set up the connection). Per Use SharePoint and Power Automate to build workflows, SharePoint performs its own permission checks when flows access lists and libraries. That means:

If your account is an internal org account and the library/list hasn’t had unique permissions applied — “Everyone except external users” access will be sufficient.

If the specific list or library has unique (broken) permissions that exclude “Everyone except external users,” you’ll still get an error. Site-level access doesn’t automatically cascade down when unique permissions exist.

If your org’s Conditional Access policies (MFA, device compliance) apply to the flow, those can also block access regardless of group membership.

Recommendation

Try authenticating your connector with your internal account — if the site truly has “Everyone except external users” with no unique library permissions, it should work. If you still see errors, check whether the specific library or list has unique permissions that override site-level access, or ask the site owner to confirm there are no exclusions.

References:

Default SharePoint groups – Special Groups (Everyone except external users) – Microsoft Learn

Authentication requirements for SharePoint and Power Automate – Microsoft Learn

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

Raghav Mishra — LinkedIn | PowerAI Labs

Was this reply helpful? Yes No
Ellis Karim 12,163 Super User 2026 Season 1 on at

Like
a
(0)

Report
Copy link

Link copied!

We need more details to help you! Please share a screenshot of your flow, showing the configured actions. If there’s an error, tell us which action failed and include the error message. Be careful not to include any sensitive or personal information. This will help us understand the issue and provide a solution faster. Thank you!

Ellis Karim
elliskarim.com | LinkedIn | Bluesky
If this solved your issue, please mark it as ✅ Accepted Answer. If it helped, feel free to give it a 🩷 Like!

Was this reply helpful? Yes No