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Add a converted file and an array of files as Approval attachments

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Posted on by Friedmochii_92

Hi guys,

I have a flow that captures file uploads from an MS Form and i wanted to attach those along with a converted file as attachments to an approval email. I did the append to array action for the file uploads, however combining the end product with the converted file to the attachment field in start an approval gives me an error. What do I do to keep both items and run the flow smoothly? Below are some screenshots to give you an idea.

I appended the file uploads here:

then my converted file is processed below just before the Create an approval action:

if you see the attachment field here, i crammed the converted file(initialized as an object since i was not sure know how to process it) and the appended files.

Hope someone could answer my query. Any support is appreciated.

thanks! 🙂

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Ellis Karim 12,315 Super User 2026 Season 2 on at

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Hi @Friedmochii_92 .

Please see the post: How to send Microsoft Forms file uploads to an Approval workflow using Power Automate

You should append all your files to the attachments array as mentioned in the post, including your "converted file":

Ellis
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Friedmochii_92 18 on at

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Hi Ellis,

Thanks for responding. I tried your solution however I’m stuck at the moment. For more context, my flow runs whether the request is for a client or a vendor. So it starts off here, where I initialized the file attachments and then added the json of the uploaded files.

below this, i created a condition since the file attachments are not mandatory.

then another condition follows to split actions for either clients or vendors.

and finally, I tried to append the uploaded files and the converted file but it says i entered an invalid json. 😞 i dont know what else to do…
Ellis Karim 12,315 Super User 2026 Season 2 on at

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Hi @Friedmochii_92 ,

Try performing the Append to Array action in two steps, for example:

Ellis
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Friedmochii_92 18 on at

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Hi Ellis,

I followed your suggestion and it worked a bit but I keep getting other errors along the way. Either an array is null, or the contentbytes are not found even if I added the base64 expression around the file content. See snips below.

Here I got the error where contentbytes were not found.

and another error where the files could not be read as it was “corrupted”.

Many thanks for your help.
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Ellis Karim 12,315 Super User 2026 Season 2 on at

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HI @Friedmochii_92 ,

Could you please share the entire flow, with easy to see screenshots. I think I am missing the entire context.

For the Approval action, you should add a single variable as shown below:

Note also the difference in format for the Approvals attachment array compared to attachments array when used in Outlook:

Ellis
Friedmochii_92 18 on at

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Hi Ellis,

I've pasted the screenshots here from the top most to the part where my approval action is. Sorry if my screenshots aren't clear as my office laptop's screenshot feature is not that great. Hope this helps. Thank you.

Start of the Flow

2nd part

3rd part - Gathering the files uploaded to MS forms

4th part - Values here are added to an HTML layout

5th part6th part

7th part - Approval action
Friedmochii_92 18 on at

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Hi Ellis,

The flow works now with trial and error. Thank you for your help! 🙂