Flow for email will not send to external email addresses.

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Posted on by CF-11070733-0

Hello,

I am not an expert in powerbi whatsoever - just a lot of YouTube. I thank you in advance for not getting super technical, though somewhat expected.

So I built a flow, where when I get an email to a certain folder in my inbox, it will send a response email with a letter of hire with their personal information. I have an excel sheet acting as its database, and it is updated automatically.

I created a second flow, where it reviews the file if it has been modified, because i want it to leave a timestamp when it leaves my email. Everything works except for the recipient getting the email. When I look at my sent, it is clearly there (the email address of the participant) but for some reason it is not being received in their mailbox.

Not sure what screenshots are needed since the flow doesn't SEEM broken - but please let me know what is preventing me from sending to external. I spoke with some of the tech guys, and he said there isn't an organization block to send messages through automate to external hires.

Any advice is appreciated.

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Using flows

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Riyaz_riz11 3,893 Super User 2025 Season 2 on at

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Hi,

Even though they said there's no block, ask them to verify:

Power Automate external email permissions are enabled

Shared mailbox external sending is allowed (if using shared mailbox)

No DLP (Data Loss Prevention) policies are blocking external emails

Office 365 mail flow rules aren't interfering

Step-by-Step Troubleshooting

Step 1: Test with Simple Email

Create a test flow

Use "Send an email notification (V2)"

Send a simple "Hello" message to an external email

See if this basic email is delivered

Step 2: Check Your Email Action Settings

In your flow, look at your email action and verify:

Action Type: Should be "Send an email notification (V2)"

To: Should be the external email address

From: Should be your email or the shared mailbox

Subject: Should be clear and not spam-like

Body: Should be properly formatted

Step 3: Add Email Validation

Before your email action, add these steps:

Action: Compose

Name: CleanEmail Value: trim(YourEmailVariableFromExcel)

Action: Condition

If: contains(outputs('CleanEmail'), '@')

Yes: Send email

No: Log error or skip

Step 4: Add Delivery Confirmation

Add this after your email action:

Action: Update a row in a table

Update your Excel with "Email Sent" timestamp

This helps track what was sent vs. what was received

Quick Fixes to Try First

Fix 1: Change Email Action

Go to your flow

Click on the email sending action

If it says "Send an email (V2)", delete it

Add "Send an email notification (V2)" instead

Reconfigure with same settings

Fix 2: Test Email Format

Add this before your email action:

Compose Action: Name: TestEmail Value: trim(replace(YourEmailVariable, ' ', ''))

Fix 3: Add Error Handling

After your email action, add:

Configure run after: is successful, has failed, is skipped, has timed out

Then add a condition:

If: equals(outputs('Send_an_email_notification')?['statusCode'], 202

Yes: Email sent successfully

No: Log the error

If I have answered your question, please mark it as the preferred solution ✅ . If you like my response, please give it a Thumbs Up 👍.
Regards,
Riyaz

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Tomac 3,966 Moderator on at

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You'll need to engage your mail server administrator as the next step - they can track the outbound message to see if it was successfully handed off to the recipient's mail server. If so, the problem exists on the recipient's side. If not, the mail server admin will be able to tell you why the message didn't get that far.

This is not a problem with your flow - the message shows in your Sent Items folder so the flow is working correctly.

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