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Power Platform Community / Forums / Power Automate / How to Download Histor...
Power Automate
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How to Download Historic File Versions from SharePoint Online with Power Automate?

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Posted on by 10

Hi all,

I want to automatically download a specific historic (major) version of a file from SharePoint Online using Power Automate (Cloud Flow).

What I’ve tried:

  • I can get the correct _vti_history path for the version via the SharePoint REST API.
  • Download via browser works perfectly with the _vti_history URL.
  • In Power Automate, “Get file content using path” and HTTP requests (with the same URL) always return either 404 or 401 errors, or only provide the latest file version.
  • I don’t want to restore or manually copy the file; it should work automatically in the flow.

Questions:

  1. Is there any supported way to automatically get the content of a specific historic version (e.g. 1.0, 2.0) in Power Automate?
  2. Is there a SharePoint or Graph endpoint for this use case?
  3. Any workarounds?

Thanks for any ideas or solutions!

Rene




 
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  • Verified answer
    Michael E. Gernaey Profile Picture
    53,969 Moderator on at
     
    See if this helps
     
     
    And
     
     
    It shows how to access the versions.
     
     If these suggestions help resolve your issue, Please consider Marking the answer as such and also maybe a like.
    Thank you!
    Sincerely, Michael Gernaey
  • Bledrunner Profile Picture
    10 on at
     

    thanks for your suggestions and the links!

    Unfortunately, these approaches do not solve my core problem. I‘m aware of the possibility to retrieve metadata and the _vti_history URL for previous versions using the REST API or to manually download historical versions via browser.

    However, the challenge is to programmatically download the actual file content of a specific (major) historic version in a Power Automate (Cloud Flow) scenario.

    So far, all attempts (including HTTP calls to the _vti_history URL and “Get file content using path”) either result in 401/404 errors or always return only the latest file version, due to SharePoint Online’s security and authentication mechanisms.

    To clarify:

     

    • Manual download in the browser works fine – but I’m looking for a 100% automated approach.

    • I do not want to restore or copy the file version as a workaround.

    • Neither the Graph API nor the standard SharePoint connectors allow access to the binary content of a specific previous file version in a flow.

    As far as I can tell, there is currently no supported or documented way to achieve this directly in Power Automate.

    If there are any new APIs, preview features, or alternative methods for this scenario, I’d appreciate any pointers!

     

    Thanks anyway for your help – maybe this will be possible in the future!

     

    Best regards,

    Rene

  • w.p Profile Picture
    8,345 Super User 2026 Season 1 on at
    -[VERSION_NUMBER] = Major version * 512 +  Minor Version
     
    _api/web/GetFileByServerRelativeUrl('%2Fsites%2SITE_NAME%2FDOC_LIB_NAME%2FFILE_NAME')/versions([VERSION_NUMBER])/$value
     
     
  • w.p Profile Picture
    8,345 Super User 2026 Season 1 on at
    Just following up on this, if you have any more queries, or has it been resolved?
  • Michael E. Gernaey Profile Picture
    53,969 Moderator on at
     
    Unfortunately you are correct by default you cannot.
     
    You would have to 
    1) Get the version details you want
    2) restore the old version 
    3) download it
    4) restore the true latest
     
    Sorry I wish it was easier.
     
    You could technically use power automate desktop and the Web UI but I do not think that is useful for you.

    If these suggestions help resolve your issue, Please consider Marking the answer as such and also maybe a like.

    Thank you!
    Sincerely, Michael Gernaey

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