Split PDFs dynamically

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Posted on by Esbastian

I'm downloading a PDF from a Website and the PDF have always different number of Pages.

How can I split the PDF in single pages without knowing the total number of pages?

I need this to work on unattended fashion. I can't use dialog box to pass the file

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Power Automate Desktop

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VishnuReddy1997 2,656 Super User 2025 Season 2 on at

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Hi @Esbastian,

Please find the solution.

Python code: Please save the python code in notepad and save as .py file and provide it in Run Powershell script action.
import fitz # PyMuPDF import sys def count_pages(pdf_path): pdf_document = fitz.open(pdf_path) num_pages = pdf_document.page_count return num_pages if __name__ == "__main__": if len(sys.argv) != 2: print("Usage: python count_pages_pymupdf.py <pdf_path>") sys.exit(1) pdf_path = sys.argv[1] num_pages = count_pages(pdf_path) print(f"{num_pages}")

Please copy paste the below script to your PAD and change the paths.

Folder.GetFiles Folder: $'''C:\\Users\\Desktop\\Power Automate Desktop\\Practice\\PDF\\PAD PDF 0''' FileFilter: $'''*''' IncludeSubfolders: False FailOnAccessDenied: True SortBy1: Folder.SortBy.NoSort SortDescending1: False SortBy2: Folder.SortBy.NoSort SortDescending2: False SortBy3: Folder.SortBy.NoSort SortDescending3: False Files=> PDF_Files LOOP FOREACH CurrentItem IN PDF_Files # Script to Count Number of pages in PDF @@copilotGeneratedAction: 'False' Scripting.RunPowershellScript.RunPowershellScript Script: $'''Python \"C:\\Users\\Desktop\\PDFPagesCount.py\" \"%CurrentItem.FullName%\"''' ScriptOutput=> PDFPagesCount ScriptError=> ScriptError2 Text.ToNumber Text: PDFPagesCount Number=> PDFPagesCount LOOP LoopIndex FROM 1 TO PDFPagesCount STEP 1 Pdf.ExtractPages PDFFile: CurrentItem PageSelection: LoopIndex ExtractedPDFPath: $'''C:\\Users\\Desktop\\Power Automate Desktop\\Practice\\PDF\\PAD PDF 1\\%CurrentItem.NameWithoutExtension%.pdf''' IfFileExists: Pdf.IfFileExists.AddSequentialSuffix ExtractedPDFFile=> ExtractedPDF END END

(Note:- if you got your solution you can mark as solution and gives kudos)

Thanks & Regards Vishnu Red

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eetuRobo 4,204 Super User 2025 Season 2 on at

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@VishnuReddy1997's solution seems clean so mark that as solution if that does the job for you.

Alternative way to using scripts would be using Extract PDF file pages to new PDF file -action to go to "pages out of bounds error" and since the error message returns all the pages that were not in PDF that you gave it to extract then you can just take the first non existing page number from the error message and decrease it by 1 to get the last page number.

Not sure if this is the best way to do things since there is a possibility that the error message could change in future updates.

Here is the flow:

Explanation:
1. Have Extract PDF file pages to new PDF file to take more pages than you know there will be (for example 1-99). Add On error on that action to continue to next action since it should always go to error.
2. use Get last error -action to get the error message that you parse the last page from.
Also: Consider adding an if condition that checks that its actually "Pages out of bounds " error and not "file not found" or something like that where the flow should stop since its an actual error.

3. Then Replace the LastError.Message "Pages out of bounds. Page numbers '" with empty string. Then you have Replaced -variable with the first character being the first page that does not exist.

4. Then take the first page that doesn't exist in a variable and convert it to number. Then decrease it by one to get the last page number. Then just loop through and use Extract PDF file pages to new PDF file -action to craete PDFs from each existing pdf page.

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Esbastian 24 on at

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Thanks Vishnu!

This works. I also found an other way

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