Rename/replace a file in Sharepoint with HTTP request

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Posted on by SensingFailure

Hi All,

I started this journey thinking such a simple task would have a simple implementation. The ideal state is:

User: places a new excel file into Sharepoint folder (LoginReport-MMDD-MMDD.xlsx)
Flow: copy new file into archive folder.
Flow: rename new file (from user) to standard name (i.e. LoginReport-MMDD-MMDD.xlsx rename to NewCitrixDataLoad.xlsx)

Step 3 is where I am having major issues. There is already a file in the folder with the name NewCitrixDataLoad. I originally thought Power Automate would just overwrite the old file with the new one, but it errors out with 'File already exists'. Then I tried making a delete step to delete the file before renaming, but that didn't seem to work either. After countless hours of research and failures, I am hoping for some assistance.

For some reason I can make each of the individual pieces work, but it's when they are in a single flow that something breaks.

My best attempt appears as:

Any help is greatly appreciated!

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Building flows

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Ellis Karim 12,047 Super User 2026 Season 1 on at

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Hi @SensingFailure ,

Try:

Use the When a file is created (properties only) trigger

Perform steps (2) and (3) sequentially and not in parallel

Here is one option to rename a Folder or File: How to Rename a SharePoint Folder or File using REST API with Power Automate

The flow could resemble the following:

The demo flow uses When a file is created (properties only) trigger:

The Send an HTTP request to SharePoint request used the method POST:

_api/web/lists/GetbyTitle('Documents')/items(@{triggerOutputs()?['body/ID']})/validateUpdateListItem { "formValues": [ { "FieldName": "FileLeafRef", "FieldValue": "NewCitrixDataLoad.xlsx" } ] }

Hope this helps.

Ellis
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SensingFailure 20 on at

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Thank you so much for your response! On recreating this flow, there are a few issues I am still experiencing.
Copy file - Is copying both the newly uploaded LoginReport file, but also the existing NewCitrixDataLoad file to the archive folder. The ideal state is for only the newly uploaded file.
HTTP request is still failing with the error "A file with the name /Dashboard Repository/Dashboard Source Files/ClassNet Analysis/CitrixData/NEWMODEL/CitrixDataFiles/NewCitrixDataLoad.xlsx already exists." I'm not sure why this is still happening.
I tried inserting a delete step prior to the HTTP request to solve this, but then am met with an error that the NewCitrixDataLoad does not exist.

Any additional thoughts?

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grantjenkins 11,063 Moderator on at

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If you weren't worried about keeping the actual original file then you could just do the following:

Trigger When a file is created in a folder with two trigger conditions:
Only files that start with LoginReport
Only files that end with .xlsx
Copy the file to the Archive folder setting it to Move with a new name (or overwrite if you want)
Create a file using the original file's content specifying the name NewCitrixDataLoad (should automatically overwrite if file with same name already exists)
Delete the original file

Note that adding trigger conditions are much better than having condition logic in the flow as you won't even get a flow run if any of the trigger conditions evaluate to false.

The trigger conditions are below:

@startsWith(string(triggerOutputs()?['headers/x-ms-file-name']),'LoginReport') @endsWith(string(triggerOutputs()?['headers/x-ms-file-name']),'.xlsx')

To add the trigger conditions just click on the ... next to the Trigger and select Settings, then add your conditions.

And the flow itself:

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SensingFailure 20 on at

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Thank you SO MUCH! This worked fantastically!

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adinata 2 on at

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Hi everyone,
I'm experiencing the same issue
I'm trying to rename a folder/file. Below are the screenshots:
This is for rename the folder

and this is for rename the file

but i got this error:
The URL 'url' is invalid. It may refer to a nonexistent file or folder, or refer to a valid file or folder that is not in the current Web.

I hope someone can help to solve this issue. many thanks!

cheers
Adi

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