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Illegal characters in path

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Posted on by Jlaviolette

Im trying to build a flow to delete files older than 550 days, but i cannot seem to even get it to delete a test file from a test folder with no conditions.

Get files in folder - output to variable "Files"

Delete Files - "Files"

Microsoft.Flow.RPA.Desktop.Modules.SDK.ActionException:

Can't delete file C:\Users\james\Desktop\Data FolderC:\Users\james\Desktop\DataFolder\76543.txt ---> System.ArgumentException: Illegal characters in path.
at System.IO.Path.CheckInvalidPathChars(String path, Boolean checkAdditional)
at System.IO.Path.GetFileName(String path)
at Microsoft.Flow.RPA.Desktop.Modules.File.Actions.DeleteFileAction.Execute(ActionContext context)
--- End of inner exception stack trace ---
at Microsoft.Flow.RPA.Desktop.Modules.File.Actions.DeleteFileAction.Execute(ActionContext context)
at Microsoft.Flow.RPA.Desktop.Robin.Engine.Execution.ActionRunner.Run(IActionStatement statement, Dictionary`2 inputArguments, Dictionary`2 outputArguments)

i highlighted in red the only thing i can think of that could be wong, maybe there should be a space there? i have no idea...

im pretty new to this and this is quite frustrating, if you can help, please let me know!

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Building flows

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eliotcole 4,363 Moderator on at

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I think that's two paths that have been joined together, @Jlaviolette ... I might not be the person who answers this, but if you include screenshots of your flow, and maybe some example data in a code box, then folks might have a better chance of assisting you, mate. 👍

Just obfuscate anything sensitive, and ensure that it's all in the original question, as that helps folks in the future parse what's going on. 🙂

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Jlaviolette 10 on at

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yes! so i had been putting the file path in as well as the variable and it turns out all i needed was the variable itself.
its working now.
now i still need to figure out how to only delete files older than 550 days

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tsunami3775 2 on at

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My newbie tip or tip for python programmers: Don't use quotation in file path. Or else it will cause this error.

Don't use this- "C:\Users\johnc\Desktop\test"
Use this- C:\Users\johnc\Desktop\test

It doesn't need pythonic quotations around it or it will produce this error also.

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