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Power Platform Community / Forums / Power Automate / Power Automate saves e...
Power Automate
Suggested Answer

Power Automate saves email attachments as 1 KB files (Outlook → SharePoint)

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Posted on by MZ-10040750-0

Hello everyone,

I created a Power Automate flow to automatically save email attachments from incoming emails.

 

The flow structure is:

  1. Trigger: “When a new email arrives (V3)”
  2. Automatically generated “Apply to each” loop for attachments
  3. (optionally tested) Action: “Get attachment (V2)”
  4. Action: “Create file” (SharePoint or OneDrive)

The goal is to save the attachments into a SharePoint document library.

 

Problem:

The flow runs successfully according to the test results, but the created files are only about 1 KB in size and cannot be opened.

The issue occurs with both:


  • OneDrive
  • and SharePoint

    •  

Additional details:


  • File names are correct
  • Multiple attachments are detected correctly (Apply to each works)
  • Attachments are e.g. PDF files
  • The issue also occurs with simple test emails

    •  

I tested the flow:

  • without “Get attachment (V2)” (using “Attachments Content” directly from the trigger)
  • and with “Get attachment (V2)”

    •  

In both cases, the result is the same (files ~1 KB).

In the “Create file” action, I tried using:


  • “Attachments Content” from the trigger
  • Fields from “Get attachment (V2)”

    •  

However, in the dynamic content panel of “Get attachment (V2)”, I cannot find a clear field for the actual file content (e.g. ContentBytes).

Questions:


  • Which field should be used for the file content in the “Create file” action?

  • Why is no usable file content returned from “Get attachment (V2)”?

  • Are there known issues with this setup?
Thank you in advance for your help!
Eingang neuer E-Mail.jpg
Datei erstellen.jpg
Categories:
Using flows
I have the same question (0)
  • Suggested answer
    frago Profile Picture
    frago 226 on at

    Root cause

    The files are ~1 KB because you’re not using the actual binary content of the attachment, only metadata (or an empty/incorrect field).

     

    Key point

    In Power Automate, the correct field is:


    • From “Get attachment (V2)” → ContentBytes
     
    Correct Inside your Apply
    • Get attachment (V2)

      • Message Id → from trigger

      • Attachment Id → from trigger


        •  
    • Create file

      • File Name → Attachment Name

      • File Content → ContentBytes (from Get attachment) 

        ------------------------------------------------------------
    • If this solved your issue, please mark it as ✅ Accepted Answer.
      If it helped, feel free to give it a 🩷 Like!
       
      Best regards,
      Piotr
       
       
  • David_MA Profile Picture
    David_MA 14,371 Super User 2026 Season 1 on at
    I find that you need to wrap the file content in a base64tobinary() expression. Note, this does not work if text or csv files are attached, but you said you are getting pdf files. 
    The expression for the file content is: 
     
    base64ToBinary(items('Apply_to_each')?['contentBytes'])

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