Using "For Each" action to loop through matching emails to save attachment & process data

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Posted on by r96359

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Hello,

I have a process where I need to:

1. look for specific emails based on subject heading

2. download the specific xls attachment

3. process data from it

4. delete file from folder

5. repeat with next matching email

The issue is that I can't seem to get the loop to work if I put the get email inside the loop.

If I put the get email ahead of the loop it works but downloads all attachments from emails at once thus overwriting the attachment. How should I write this?

Snippet of what I want it to do below.

Thanks!

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Power Automate Desktop

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miketran13 720 on at

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Hi,

I see the problem now, it is exceedingly difficult for you to do that and I have not seen any solutions for you to do it by using Retrieving Email messages from Outlook or Exchange because in these actions it only allows you to save the attachments to a folder and you will get the issue with the attachment will be overridden.

However, I have done this by using a workaround solution with the other actions by performing actions on Outlook.
I would do these steps with PAD:

1. Open Outlook
2. Retrieve email from Outlook folder to see how many emails do you have.
3. Navigating to the Outlook folder that you want to retrieve the email (Inbox or RPA folder)
4. Double click on the first email
5. Save the attachment if any.
6. Process the data from the attachment
7. Move the email to the RPA Done folder if success, or Failed folder if it failed
8. Delete the files

Then repeat the step 2 until step 8. By using this, you will alway need to move the emails that is success or failed and then repeat the step for retreiving emails. If there is no emails that match the conditions, then the flow should be stopped.

Thanks and hope it can help you.
Mike
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r96359 228 on at

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@miketran13 It seems the rpa process you describe above also requires that I find all matching emails and loop through them to process and move them into another processed folder yes? how would you build the for each action for this one? It seems the structure would be the same?
Thanks

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miketran13 720 on at

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Hi,

The thing here is that you have to move all the email that are processed (Succeeded, Failed and Not Matched also) to another folder, so that next time when loop starts again for retrieving emails, if there is no email, the process should be stopped.
And when opening the email from Step 4, you have to copy all content, subject or whatever you need for checking the email is matched or not. For example, if I want to check the email subject contains a text, then I will add an action for Copying Subject and then compare it with the format, if it is matched, then continue processing, if it is not matched, then move it to another folder.

Thanks and hope it can help you.
Mike
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r96359 228 on at

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@miketran13
Hi Mike,
Thanks for the reply. Is this situation I believe it is best I use a cloud flow and call on the desktop flow for the excel manipulation. Best of both worlds as the cloud flow will allow a loop for each matching email and process the desktop flow for each email within the for each without any workarounds.

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miketran13 720 on at

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Hey,

I think you got a very good idea, so if you can process your email on the cloud flow then it can reduce a lot of steps for your desktop flow. And your desktop flow becomes simpler.

For Desktop flow, you should only perform actions that you can't do it on cloud flows.

Thanks and hope it can help you.
Mike
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r96359 228 on at

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Thanks @miketran13
I'm trying to find documentation on another challenge dealing with excel row level conditioning using PAD. I'll post that in another message as I think it might be helpful to others if I can get an answer.

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