Automate Deletion of Files Inside Subfolders

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Posted on by AbrahamM

Hello everyone,

I have a folder structure set up in SharePoint as follows:

Documents > General > testing > A

Inside the A folder, there are individual folders for all people whose names start with the letter A. Each of these individual folders needs to be automatically deleted every 3 months using Power Automate, regardless of the file types inside.

The testing folder contains similar subfolders named from A to Z.

Important: The subfolders A to Z themselves need to be preserved and only the files inside the individual folders within each letter folder should be deleted every 3 months.

Could someone please guide me on how to create a Power Automate flow to delete all files inside the individual folders under each letter folder (A to Z) on a recurring 3-month schedule, while keeping the folder structure intact?

Thanks in advance for your help!

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Tomac 4,061 Moderator on at

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Hi, to quickly clarify, the A through Z folders should remain intact but the user name folders within should be deleted along with files, correct?

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David_MA 14,499 Super User 2026 Season 1 on at

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You would do this:

Create a scheduled flow that runs every day.

Add a Get files (properties only)

Point it to your document library.

In advanced settings, choose folder "A".

Set include nested items to yes.

Add a filter query where the created date is less than or equal current date minus three months: Created le '@{addToTime(utcNow(), 3, 'Month')}'

Add a condition to check if any files were found.

One the yes side of the condition, add an apply to each action.

In the apply to each action, add a delete file action.

This will handle deleting the files, although it may need to be tweaked as I am not sure I completely understand your requirements or folder structure.

I also am not sure how to handle the scenario you've described regarding deleting the folders. Someone else will need to provide a solution for that. If this were something I were doing, I would most likely look into Purview retention labels. Something like what is outlined here: Setting up a retention policy separately for a folder or document - Microsoft Community, which seems to fit your use case.

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AbrahamM 2 on at

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Thanks David and Tomac, just to clarify the A through Z folders should remain intact, and so should the user name folders within them. Only the files inside each user folder should be deleted.

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David_MA 14,499 Super User 2026 Season 1 on at

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So, you are saying all folders remain intact and none need to be deleted? If so, what I outlined below should work. Just be sure to choose the correct folder level where you want to begin the deletion of files. If there are more than 100 files that need to be deleted with every run, you will need to enable paging on the Get files action and set it to how many files would need to be deleted.

For example:

Also, if there are or will be more than 5,000 files in this document library, be sure to index the Created date or this will not work correctly.

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