Works flows removed

(6) Share

Report

Posted on by CU30101142-0

My Power Automate seems to have upgraded itself and my work flows are now missing. I don not know where to find them. Can anyone help?

Categories:

Power Automate Desktop

I have the same question (0)

All responses (9)

Answers (0)

Sort by

mmbr1606 14,629 Super User 2026 Season 1 on at

Like
a
(0)

Report
Copy link

Link copied!

hey

did u check if the right environment is selected?

also check all those tabs if they are under shared with me or so:

if it helped please mark as verified answer,

cheers

Was this reply helpful? Yes No
CU09100626-0 50 on at

Like
a
(3)

Report
Copy link

Link copied!

I encoountered same issue.

Microsoft hasn't returned my flows yet.

Was this reply helpful? Yes No
31101158-0 4 on at

Like
a
(2)

Report
Copy link

Link copied!

Same issue.

Was this reply helpful? Yes No
Suggested answer

SARAVANA PRABHU R 16 on at

Like
a
(0)

Report
Copy link

Link copied!

If Power Automate has upgraded and your workflows appear to be missing, it’s possible that the upgrade caused the software to lose track of the saved file location.

Here’s how you can locate and restore them:

1. Check the New Default Directory:
- After an update, Power Automate Desktop might switch to a new default file location. Check common directories such as:
- OneDrive: `C:\Users\YourUsername\OneDrive\Apps\Power Automate Desktop For Windows`
- Documents Folder: `C:\Users\YourUsername\Documents\Power Automate`
- Use these as starting points to see if your flows are still in a known directory.

2. Search for `.pad` Files:
- Use Windows Search to look for files with the `.pad` extension, which is the file type for Power Automate Desktop flows.
- Open File Explorer, go to `This PC`, and search for `.pad`. This can help locate all your flows across your system, in case they were moved during the update.

3. Reimport Flows into Power Automate Desktop:
- If you find the files but they aren’t showing up in Power Automate Desktop, you can reimport them:
- Open Power Automate Desktop, go to My Flows > Import, and navigate to the location where you found the `.pad` files.

4. Revert to a Previous Version or Backup:
- If the files are completely missing, check with your organization’s IT team or use a backup tool (like OneDrive’s version history) to see if you can restore previous versions.

Let me know if this helps you find your workflows, or if you need further steps!

Was this reply helpful? Yes No
CU04111559-1 10 on at

Like
a
(2)

Report
Copy link

Link copied!

Hello. I'm having the same problem. Today, I couldn't open the flows because there was an error. I signed out from my account, updated Power Automate Desktop and signed in again. All my flows disapeared. I'm using the free version of PAD. I can't find any *.pad files on my PC. How can I solve this issue? Thank you!

Was this reply helpful? Yes No
Pizanauta 31 on at

Like
a
(0)

Report
Copy link

Link copied!

Hi everyone,

I have the same problem with Power Automate Desktop from the Microsoft Store.

I was looking for my flows and found them in OneDrive\Aplicaciones\Power Automate Desktop for Windows\. In this location, there are two files for each of my flows: one without an extension and another with a .meta extension. When I create a new flow, two new files appear here with the same extensions, but It appears that Power Automate Desktop only recognize these new files and not other files in this directory.

Additionally, I noticed that in C:\Users\[user]\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Power Automate Desktop\Designer\Data, a .settings file with same name was created for each new flow. It seems that Power Automate may need these .settings files to recognize the flows. Unfortunately, I don’t have a backup for this location, so I can’t restore them fully.

I hope this information is helpful to someone who might find a solution. It would be great if anyone has ideas on recreating these .settings files or restoring flows.

Cheers!

Was this reply helpful? Yes No
CU09100626-0 50 on at

Like
a
(0)

Report
Copy link

Link copied!

https://community.powerplatform.com/forums/thread/details/?threadid=cf1f11ef-e280-41ee-bdf1-df736a98061b

Try this.

Was this reply helpful? Yes No

Suggested answer

Pizanauta

31 on at

Like (3)

Report

Copy link

Link copied!

Thanks to this post https://community.powerplatform.com/forums/thread/details/?threadid=cf1f11ef-e280-41ee-bdf1-df736a98061b and the method suggested by @kostasc (with some modifications) I have been able to recover all my missing flows.

Here is my method and here you can see a video with the procedure: https://youtu.be/8UZdClDsQcs

Process to Retrieve Flows in Power Automate from OneDrive

Initial File Location

In File Explorer or your browser, go to the folder on your OneDrive where the files for your flows are stored locally. In my case the route is OneDrive\apps\Graphics but it can vary depending on the configuration: OneDrive\apps\graph or OneDrive\applications\graph or OneDrive\applications\power automate...)
This folder should contain your lost streams which are made up of 2 files each, one of them with no extension and the other with a .meta extension.

Create a new flow

Open Power Automate Desktop, create a new flow (it may be empty), and save it. This will generate two new files (one without an extension and one with the .meta extension.
Locate these 2 files.

Prepare the .meta file

Edit the newly created .meta file using Notepad.

This file is in Base64 format, so you'll need to decode it.
Copy the content and code it into base64decode.org. (In my case and for convenience, I have two tabs open on this page, one with the decoder and the other with the encoder)
Copy the decoded result into the tab where we will encode it later.

Save the decoded result in Excel, Word, or anywhere you can easily see it; Then we'll compare it to one of the flows you want to recover.
In my case, the file once decoded has this value: {"id":"fb30b571-9f62-40de-a575-e7d299c4d547","name":"RESTORE","description":null,"projectCTag":"\"c:{ADAAE994-77A7-4A34-9454-E10394D6539E},1\""}

Compare the .meta file of the new stream and the stream to be recovered

Edit the .meta file of one of the old flows you want to recover and decode it in the same way you did with the new flow.
In my case the value of this file was: {"id":"9e92e9ce-37bd-4201-ad4b-a826b05ac474","name":"EXTAE DATA Informa.es","description":"The flow asks you to enter a URL of the https://www.informa.es/directorio-empresas page (e.g.: https://www.informa.es/directorio-empresas/Localidad_ALCAZAR-SAN-JUAN-CIUDAD-REAL.html), goes through all the pages of the list and extracts the data in an excel sheet","projectCTag":"aYzpGQjZDQ0E3NTQwN0EyNUFCITgwMzYuMjYw"}
Place both decoded results next to each other and observe the differences (in this case I have marked the differences in red in the new file, obviously the intermediate string will change for each file, it will also have to be changed but first it must be identified).

NEW .met FILE

.meta FILE OF THE FLOW TO BE RETRIEVED

{"id":"fb30b571-9f62-40de-a575-e7d299c4d547","name":"RESTORE","description":null,"projectCTag":"\"c:{ADAAE994-77A7-4A34-9454-E10394D6539E},1\""}

{"id":"9e92e9ce-37bd-4201-ad4b-a826b05ac474","name":"EXTAE DATA Informa.es","description":"The flow asks for a URL of the https://www.informa.es/directorio-empresas page (e.g.: https://www.informa.es/directorio-empresas/Localidad_ALCAZAR-SAN-JUAN-CIUDAD-REAL.html), goes through all the pages of the list and extracts the data in an excel sheet","projectCTag":"aYzpGQjZDQ0E3NTQwN0EyNUFCITgwMzYuMjYw"}

Important note: The part you're interested in is the projectCTag part. Note the differences in formatting, as you'll need to adapt the old flow to match the new format.

Copy the flow files to your OneDrive folder

In the event that the files of the flow to be recovered were not in the OneDrive folder for any reason, copy it to it, if it is already in the folder, you can skip this step.

Preparing Fiddler to capture the correct cTag

Open Fiddler Classic and apply a filter to show only URLs containing v1.0. This will make it easier for you to find the update URL.
Go back to Power Automate Desktop and select the option to refresh your flows.

Capture the cTag of the flow from Fiddler

In Fiddler, find the latest graph.microsoft.com//v1.0/me/drive/approot/children update and double-click it

Adjust the view in the bottom right pane to show the JSON of the values.
If there are many files in the folder, you can collapse the tree at the bottom, this will make it easier for you to find the necessary file
Navigate through the {} values until you find the flow whose name matches the flow you want to recover (example: 9e92e9ce-37bd-4201-ad4b-a826b05ac474). Each value {} corresponds to a file, one for the file without extension and another for the file with .meta extension, the one we are interested in is the one that corresponds to the file without extension

Once the file is located we can see the cTag value which will be something like this: cTag="c:{56357189-14BC-4FEA-B82C-66E003CD3DF2},1" (if you look closely it almost has the format we are interested in, although not exactly, so what we really need is the central string marked in bold)

Note: If Fiddler does not capture the packets I recommend checking on "Capture HTTPS traffic" which is in options.

Formatting the cTag for the Recovery File

Adjust the cTag with the format we got the new file but with the code/string obtained in Fiddler (example: "projectCTag":"\"c:{56357189-14BC-4FEA-B82C-66E003CD3DF2},1\""} instead of the old flow format.

Encode the .meta file of the stream to be retrieved

Copy the result of the decoding of the .meta file into the window you have prepared for the Encoding (If you had already copied it in step 3 you will already have this part ready)

In the code to be encoded, replace the entire projectCTag part with the string that we formatted in point 8

Important: beware of spaces, line breaks, quotation marks or anything else that could generate an erroneous code

Re-encode the file in Base64
Copy the encoded result.

Update the flow's .meta file

If you didn't have it open, open the. The goal of the flow to be retrieved and replaces the content with the new text that we have just encoded in Base64.

Save your changes.

Update flows in Power Automate

Go back to Power Automate Desktop and select the option to refresh your flows.
If there were no errors, the flow should appear and be ready to use.

Was this reply helpful? Yes No

CU13111427-0 2 on at

Like
a
(1)

Report
Copy link

Link copied!

My PC automatically rebooted overnight to finish installing an update and I'm guessing it inadvertently caused the same issue (all my PAD Flows are now missing).

I was able to recover them using @Pizanauta's instructions though, and so far so good!

Was this reply helpful? Yes No