Retrieve Emails from outlook

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Posted on by christian12

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Hi Team,

When I use the Retrieve Emails from outlook action I would like to amend the .Subject line prior to saving the outlook message.

I loop the emails that I have retrieved but I'm unable to modify the .Subject field. Keep getting errors.

Is there anyway that I'm able to amend the subject line prior to saving the email.

Any help is greatly appreciated.

thanks

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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 @christian12 ,

If you want to replace/edit the subject of the retrieved emails using for each. Following is one of the way of doing it: You can use the action "Write to text file" and write the retrieved email parameters to the text.

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

Thanks & Regards
Vishnu Reddy

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Deenuji_Loganathan_ 6,250 Super User 2025 Season 2 on at

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Hi @christian12

Please follow the below approach:

Launch Outlook: Open Microsoft Outlook.
Retrieve Email Messages: Retrieve email messages from the specified email account and inbox folder. Retrieve all emails based on your condition
Loop(For each) Through Retrieved Emails:
For each email message retrieved:
Save Email Messages: Save the current email message as an Outlook message file (.msg) with a custom file name based on the subject of the email(You can add any text- For example : I have added Anytext prior to subject line).
Specify the destination folder where the email messages will be saved.
End Loop: Continue looping through all retrieved email messages until all messages have been processed.

Code:

Outlook.Launch Instance=> OutlookInstance Outlook.RetrieveEmailMessages.RetrieveEmails Instance: OutlookInstance Account: $'''Deenu@microsoft.com''' MailFolder: $'''Inbox''' EmailsToRetrieve: Outlook.RetrieveMessagesMode.All MarkAsRead: False ReadBodyAsHtml: False SubjectContains: $'''test''' Messages=> RetrievedEmails LOOP FOREACH CurrentItem IN RetrievedEmails Outlook.SaveOutlookEmailMessages.SaveEmailsAs Instance: OutlookInstance Account: $'''Deenu@microsoft.com''' EmailsToSave: CurrentItem SaveFormat: Outlook.MessageType.OutlookMessageFormatUnicode SaveEmailsAs: $'''Anytext_%CurrentItem.Subject%''' SaveEmailsTo: $'''C:\\Deenu\\Mails''' MessagesFiles=> StoredMessagesFiles END

Thanks,
Deenuji Loganathan 👩‍💻
Automation Evangelist 🤖
Follow me on LinkedIn 👥

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christian12 204 on at

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Thank you for your help.

Unfortunately what I need to do is save the email as a template file so OFT.
I don't need to change the file name, I need to change the subject line within the retrieved email.

So example one of my retrieved emails has a subject line: test123
I need to amend the subject line for example lets change it to just test. When I save the outlook message my subject line should now read test and not test123.

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VishnuReddy1997 2,656 Super User 2025 Season 2 on at

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Hi @christian12 ,

That what i said if you want to save the outlook message as .msg file you cant do that. But if you want to save in text file you can do it as I mentioned in first reply.

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

Thanks & Regards
Vishnu Reddy

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Deenuji_Loganathan_ 6,250 Super User 2025 Season 2 on at

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@christian12
You can use powershell script to achieve the same. Please refer the below suggested approach:

Code(Copy and paste this code into your power automate desktop)

Outlook.Launch Instance=> OutlookInstance Outlook.RetrieveEmailMessages.RetrieveEmails Instance: OutlookInstance Account: $'''Deenu@microsoft.com''' MailFolder: $'''Inbox''' EmailsToRetrieve: Outlook.RetrieveMessagesMode.All MarkAsRead: False ReadBodyAsHtml: False SubjectContains: $'''test''' Messages=> RetrievedEmails LOOP FOREACH CurrentItem IN RetrievedEmails Outlook.SaveOutlookEmailMessages.SaveEmailsAs Instance: OutlookInstance Account: $'''Deenu@microsoft.com''' EmailsToSave: CurrentItem SaveFormat: Outlook.MessageType.OutlookTemplate SaveEmailsAs: $'''test''' SaveEmailsTo: $'''C:\\Deenu\\Mails''' MessagesFiles=> StoredMessagesFiles SET MailPath TO $'''C:\\Deenu\\Mails\\test.oft''' @@copilotGeneratedAction: 'True' Scripting.RunPowershellScript.RunPowershellScript Script: $'''$inputVariable = \"%MailPath%\" $oftFilePath = $inputVariable # New folder path $newFolderPath = \"C:\\Deenu\\Mails\\New\" # Create the new folder if it doesn\'t exist if (-not (Test-Path -Path $newFolderPath)) { New-Item -Path $newFolderPath -ItemType Directory | Out-Null } # Create an Outlook Application object $outlook = New-Object -ComObject Outlook.Application # Open the OFT file as a new mail item $mailItem = $outlook.CreateItemFromTemplate($oftFilePath) # Extract existing subject $subject = $mailItem.Subject # Modify subject $newSubject = \"Your New Subject Here\" $mailItem.Subject = $newSubject # Build the new file path $newFilePath = Join-Path -Path $newFolderPath -ChildPath (Split-Path -Leaf $oftFilePath) # Save the modified email with the same file name and extension in the new folder $mailItem.SaveAs($newFilePath) # Close the mail item $mailItem.Close() # Release COM objects [System.Runtime.Interopservices.Marshal]::ReleaseComObject($mailItem) | Out-Null [System.Runtime.Interopservices.Marshal]::ReleaseComObject($outlook) | Out-Null Remove-Variable outlook -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue''' ScriptOutput=> PowershellOutput END

New to power automate desktop? Not sure how to copy and paste the above suggested code into your desktop flow? Please refer the below image:

Thanks,
Deenuji Loganathan 👩‍💻
Automation Evangelist 🤖
Follow me on LinkedIn 👥

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christian12 204 on at

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Thank you. Unfortunately I have amended the script with the correct details and it doesn't create the New folder with the amended email. Unsure what piece of the code is failing. Tried to create the folder manually and no additional email is saving.

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Deenuji_Loganathan_ 6,250 Super User 2025 Season 2 on at

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@christian12

Please make sure to create the similar folders or rename it as required:

Please use the below updated code[copy and paste into your PAD]:

Outlook.Launch Instance=> OutlookInstance Outlook.RetrieveEmailMessages.RetrieveEmails Instance: OutlookInstance Account: $'''Deenu@microsoft.com''' MailFolder: $'''Inbox''' EmailsToRetrieve: Outlook.RetrieveMessagesMode.All MarkAsRead: False ReadBodyAsHtml: False SubjectContains: $'''RPA Extraction Reports''' Messages=> RetrievedEmails LOOP FOREACH CurrentItem IN RetrievedEmails Outlook.SaveOutlookEmailMessages.SaveEmailsAs Instance: OutlookInstance Account: $'''Deenu@microsoft.com''' EmailsToSave: CurrentItem SaveFormat: Outlook.MessageType.OutlookTemplate SaveEmailsAs: CurrentItem.Subject SaveEmailsTo: $'''C:\\Deenu\\Mails''' MessagesFiles=> StoredMessagesFiles SET MailPath TO $'''C:\\Deenu\\Mails\\%CurrentItem.Subject%.oft''' @@copilotGeneratedAction: 'True' Scripting.RunPowershellScript.RunPowershellScript Script: $'''$inputVariable = \"%MailPath%\" $oftFilePath = $inputVariable # New folder path $newFolderPath = \"C:\\Deenu\\Mails\\New\" # Create the new folder if it doesn\'t exist if (-not (Test-Path -Path $newFolderPath)) { New-Item -Path $newFolderPath -ItemType Directory | Out-Null } # Create an Outlook Application object $outlook = New-Object -ComObject Outlook.Application # Open the OFT file as a new mail item $mailItem = $outlook.CreateItemFromTemplate($oftFilePath) # Extract existing subject $subject = $mailItem.Subject # Modify subject $newSubject = \"Your New Subject Here\" $mailItem.Subject = $newSubject # Build the new file path $newFilePath = Join-Path -Path $newFolderPath -ChildPath (Split-Path -Leaf $oftFilePath) # Save the modified email with the same file name and extension in the new folder $mailItem.SaveAs($newFilePath) # Close the mail item $mailItem.Close() # Release COM objects [System.Runtime.Interopservices.Marshal]::ReleaseComObject($mailItem) | Out-Null [System.Runtime.Interopservices.Marshal]::ReleaseComObject($outlook) | Out-Null Remove-Variable outlook -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue''' ScriptOutput=> PowershellOutput END

Thanks,
Deenuji Loganathan 👩‍💻
Automation Evangelist 🤖
Follow me on LinkedIn 👥

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If I've helped solve your query, kindly mark my response as the solution ✔ and give it a thumbs up!👍 Your feedback supports future seekers 🚀

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christian12 204 on at

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Thank you. Fixed it and its now working. Next issue I have is that its not creating a new email with amended subject line. New folder is empty and the original email is saved. Nothing has been amended.

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Deenuji_Loganathan_ 6,250 Super User 2025 Season 2 on at

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@christian12
Please verify that the name of the email saved in the folder matches what you are passing to the PowerShell script. Alternatively, try hardcoding the email name while saving, such as "test123.oft," and ensure that you pass the same name to the PowerShell script(just testing purpose).

Thanks,
Deenuji Loganathan 👩‍💻
Automation Evangelist 🤖
Follow me on LinkedIn 👥

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
If I've helped solve your query, kindly mark my response as the solution ✔ and give it a thumbs up!👍 Your feedback supports future seekers 🚀

Thanks,
Deenuji Loganathan 👩‍💻
Automation Evangelist 🤖
Follow me on LinkedIn 👥

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
If I've helped solve your query, kindly mark my response as the solution ✔ and give it a thumbs up!👍 Your feedback supports future seekers 🚀

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christian12 204 on at

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Thank you got it working. Do you know if its possible straight from Power automate cloud flow to save emails as OFT format.

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