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Power Platform Community / Forums / Power Automate / Unable to move process...
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Unable to move processed Outlook emails to archive folder in Power Automate Desktop

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Posted on by 5

 

Hi everyone,

I’m working on a Power Automate Desktop flow that processes emails from Outlook Desktop.

After each email is processed or sent, I need to move it to an archive folder (PST) because my main mailbox has limited capacity.

 

I tried using Outlook rules and auto-archive, but the minimum period allowed is 1 day — I need this to happen every few hours instead.

 

To retrieve the emails, I’m using the following action successfully:

Outlook.RetrieveEmailMessages.RetrieveEmails  
Instance: OutlookInstance  
Account: 'masked_account@domain.com'  
MailFolder: 'TestFolder'  
EmailsToRetrieve: Outlook.RetrieveMessagesMode.All  
MarkAsRead: True  
ReadBodyAsHtml: False  
Messages => RetrievedEmails
 


The issue is that **the PST archive folders are not visible** when I access Outlook with this account.  
I can only see them if, in the *Account* parameter, I specify the **PST file name** instead.  
When I try to move the processed emails using:
 
Outlook.ProcessEmailMessages.MoveEmails  
Instance: OutlookInstance  
Account: 'masked_account@domain.com'  
EmailsToProcess: RetrievedEmails  
MailFolder: 'D:\\Path\\To\\File\\archive_file1.pst'
 

I get an error, since the PST archive is considered a different account from the main mailbox I used to retrieve the messages.

 
 

Expected behavior:

 

Be able to move processed emails to a folder inside a local PST archive, even if the archive belongs to a different account than the one used to retrieve the emails.

 
 

Actual behavior:

 

The action fails when trying to move messages to a folder that belongs to a PST archive file (different account). It seems Power Automate Desktop does not support cross-account moves between the main mailbox and local PST archives.

 
 

Additional information:

 

  • Outlook version: 2509

  • Power Automate Desktop version: 2.60.154

  • Account type: Exchange mailbox (primary) + local PST archive

  • The PST file is visible and accessible from Outlook Desktop.



  •  

 

Has anyone experienced something similar or found a workaround to move emails from the main mailbox to a PST archive using Power Automate Desktop?

 

Thanks in advance,
 
 
 
I have the same question (0)
  • srduval Profile Picture
    1,796 Moderator on at
    Have you tried power automate online? Not sure if it supports moving to PST or not. An alternative is to save the email to a sharepoint folder, It won't be visible inside outlook, but it helps alleviate the storage concern while keeping the email for future reference.

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