Power Platform Community Forum Thread Details

I’m banging my head against the wall here, and I could really use some expert eyes on this one.

I’m trying to use the “Populate a Microsoft Word Template” action to fill out a form-based document using Microsoft Forms + OneDrive for Business. But I keep getting this error:

The selected file doesn't contain template elements.
clientRequestId: [varies]

Here's what I’ve done (in painful detail):

I created a .docx in Word Desktop (not online)

I enabled the Developer tab

I inserted Plain Text Content Controls (Aa icon) for each field

I set both the Title and Tag for each content control (e.g., FullName, Mood, etc.)

I saved the file properly as .docx

I uploaded it to OneDrive for Business in a clean folder

I selected it in the “Populate Word Template” action

I even renamed, re-uploaded, and rebuilt the flow from scratch

Still get the same error: "No template elements"

I’ve also tried:

Using a test template with only 1 field
Rebuilding the flow completely
Uploading to a new OneDrive folder
Testing on different environments/browsers

Still no luck.

What I'm trying to do:

Form gets submitted via Microsoft Forms
Power Automate grabs the response
Populates the Word template (Cannot get past this point)
Saves it to OneDrive
Then converts it to a PDF file

The Ask:

Has anyone successfully gotten this working recently?
Is there a known bug with caching, file metadata, or Power Automate schema refresh?
Is there a diagnostic trick to validate whether Power Automate actually sees the content controls?

I’m have uploaded a sample.docx file if that helps.

Appreciate any guidance because this one’s eating up hours.

Thanks in advance!

– James

Power Automate user who just wants to automate a damn journal 😅