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Cannot create file since one already exists

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Posted on by Dan76

I have created a flow that send attachments to a specific Drive folder. It's triggered by a specific subject heading and all the attachments have exactly the same name. It works perfectly but when I set Outlook as the source instead of Gmail I get this error:

Cannot create file since a file with name '/Laps/Ranking.csv' already exists in the same folder.
clientRequestId: 30c75f90-426e-457a-820a-560cb0b48d5d

Changing the action from 'Create File' to 'Replace File' is not an option because I need all previous attachments to remain in place. As I said, this works from Gmail flawlessly - the flow creates the file in the folder without any issue, even if there are multiple files with the exact same name. Unfortunately, I can no longer use Gmail at work.

Any ideas about a solution?

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Using flows

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VictorIvanidze 13,073 on at

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Hi @Dan76, you can check if the file is already exists and if so delete it.

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Dan76 14 on at

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Hi Victor, I need to keep all the files in place in the Drive folder. I have a script that imports the files into a spreadsheet and it will update the sheet based on what is in the Drive folder. So if files are deleted that data will be missing from the sheet.

I'm not sure why the exact same flow works with Gmail but not with Outlook.

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Dan76 14 on at

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This is the configuration. If I set 'When a New Email Arrives" to Gmail, it works. If it's Outlook, it fails and gets the error I originally posted.

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VictorIvanidze 13,073 on at

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Hi @Dan76 , I mean to delete just before saving the file with the same name to avoid "file already exists" situation.

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Dan76 14 on at

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As a test I deleted the Drive folder and ran the flow again. It failed with the same error message - 'cannot create file since a file with the same name already exists in the same folder'. How can there be a file in the folder with the same name if the folder is empty?

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VictorIvanidze 13,073 on at

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Sorry I can't help here - it's a question to the Power Automate development stuff.

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Rei0116 on at

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Hi, I think you should raise a support ticket and provide more details.

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Dan76 14 on at

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Hi, have found a workaround to the problem. I used an expression that adds a timestamp to the file. This made each one unique, which avoided the error. In my original post I said that I had to keep all the files exactly the same (or the script in Google Sheets that pulls the files in from Drive would not work.) I was wrong, the script still works with the timestamp on it.

Nonetheless, having to add an expression to a simple create file action is an extra step that I don't think should be necessary. I had to get help with the expression, my skill set does not include programming!

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Viet_Luu 3 on at

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@Dan76 Can you show me the expression to add the timestamp cause I am having the same issue

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nickas 228 on at

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Could you show us how you made it?

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