HTTP Request to Sharepoint

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Posted on by CU17072334-0

Looking for some help from the community on the below as I am an idiot and at a total loss on what I am doing wrong. I am attempting to delete a locked file that I created earlier in my flow following this guide: https://www.matthewdevaney.com/4-solutions-for-excel-file-is-locked-error-in-power-automate/#Solution--2---Delete-The-Excel-File-&-Bypass-The-Shared-Use-Lock

However, I keep getting a "BadRequest" error with the below message and I am unsure how to fix it. I am attempting to pull in the URI from my create file connector earlier in the flow.

"message": "Server relative urls must start with SPWeb.ServerRelativeUrl\r\nclientRequestId: fbfd4470-41cb-4734-bad8-a276da50542f\r\nserviceRequestId: 27ceb2a1-3012-9000-71c6-6d18344b3ac4",
 
Any help would be greatly appreciated and any good resources to learn how to make me smarter with these type of connectors would be very helpful. thanks!

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WillPage 2,323 Super User 2026 Season 1 on at

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According to the documentation, deleting a file is done like this:

POST https://{site_url}/_api/web/GetFileByServerRelativeUrl('/Folder Name/{file_name}')
Authorization: "Bearer " + accessToken
If-Match: "{etag or *}"
X-HTTP-Method: "DELETE"
X-RequestDigest: "{form_digest_value}"

Note it's GetFileByServerRelativeUrl

Also, the dynamic content you want to use within the GetFileByServerRelativeUrl brackets is Full Path as that also contains the file name as well.

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Riyaz_riz11 4,048 Super User 2026 Season 1 on at

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Hi,

Method 1: Use the file's server-relative URL

In your HTTP request URL, use:

_api/web/GetFileByServerRelativeUrl('[SERVER-RELATIVE-PATH]')/recycle()

Where [SERVER-RELATIVE-PATH] should be something like:

/sites/YourSite/YourLibrary/YourFile.xlsx

Method 2: Extract from Create File output

If your "Create file" action returns a full SharePoint URL, you need to extract the server-relative portion:

Add a Compose action after your "Create file" action

Use this expression to extract the server-relative URL:

substring(outputs('Create_file')?['body/Path'], indexOf(outputs('Create_file')?['body/Path'], '/sites/'))

Then use this in your HTTP request URL:

_api/web/GetFileByServerRelativeUrl('@{outputs('Compose')}')/recycle()

Complete HTTP Request Setup:

Method: DELETE

URL: https://[yourtenant].sharepoint.com/sites/[yoursite]/_api/web/GetFileByServerRelativeUrl('/sites/[yoursite]/[yourlibrary]/[yourfile]')

Headers:

Accept: application/json;odata=verbose

Content-Type: application/json;odata=verbose

X-RequestDigest: Use the form digest value

IF-MATCH: *

If I have answered your question, please mark it as the preferred solution ✅ . If you like my response, please give it a Thumbs Up 👍. Regards, Riyaz

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Ellis Karim 11,994 Super User 2026 Season 1 on at

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Hi @CU17072334-0

I see that Matthew Devaney's tutorial uses GetByTitle action:

_api/web/Lists/GetByTitle('File Lock Testing')/GetItemById(1)/recycle

But in your sample screenshot, you have used GetFileByServerRelativeUrl action

GetFileByServerRelativeUrl()

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

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