Power Platform Community Forum Thread Details

When using Power Automate to send emails with an email template with pictures, I am having difficulties getting those pictures to actually show up. The rest of the email appears to be correct with the template it should look like, but the images request recipients to download pictures rather than just showing up directly. Looking for some advice on what has worked for people to get images to show up in emails.

Categories:

Power Automate Desktop

Hi,
When an email client like Outlook or Gmail shows the "Right-click to download pictures" placeholder, it means the client is blocking the images because they are linked as external web URLs, or they are hosted on an authenticated space like SharePoint where external recipients can't access them.

To force images to display automatically without making the user click anything, you can use one of these two reliable methods:
Method 1: The Inline Base64 Method (Best for Cloud Flows)
Instead of using a web link, you can convert the image file into a text string (Base64) and embed it directly into the email's HTML body.
1. Add a Get file content action (SharePoint or OneDrive) to fetch your image file.
2. Open your email body editor, switch to HTML view, and insert the image using this code:
<img src="data:image/png;base64,@{base64(outputs('Get_file_content')?['body'])}" alt="Embedded Image" />

(Note: Change image/png to image/jpeg if your file is a JPG).

Method 2: The Content-ID (CID) Method (Best for Desktop & Outlook Actions)
The most professional workaround is to attach the image to the email silently behind the scenes and reference it inline using a Content-ID (CID).

If you are using Power Automate Desktop (PAD):
1. Open your Send email or Send email through Outlook action settings.
2. Turn on the Is Body HTML toggle switch.
3. In the Attachments parameter, select your image file path (e.g., C:\Images\logo.png).
4. In your HTML email body, reference that exact file name like this:
<img src="cid:logo.png" alt="Company Logo" />

If you are using Power Automate Cloud Flows:
1. Fetch your file using the Get file content action.
2. In your Send an email (V2) action, expand the advanced options and add the file to the Attachments array (Set Attachment Name to: logo.png).
3. In your HTML email body, reference it using the same syntax:
<img src="cid:logo.png" alt="Company Logo" />

Why this works
Both methods completely remove external URL dependencies. Because the image data arrives bundled directly inside the email package, the recipient's mail client recognizes it as a safe, local asset and auto-renders it immediately without throwing security warnings.

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