Power Platform Community Forum Thread Details

I intended to create a flow that deletes old files from a SharePoint library but want to get more specific about the flow. Initially I had set my flow to delete by created date, then modified date, but now I am wondering if power automate can pull access date from the metadata somehow? The thought is that a user may access a file but not necessarily modify it, and therefore, I would not want this file to be deleted by the flow.

Thanks!

Categories:

Using flows

I have exactly the same requirement for a client. We raised a Microsoft support case with a partner-level consultant a few months ago. He asked around numerous colleagues and teams within Microsoft but came back to me to confirm that 'Last Accessed Date' isn't an option. It is a property of files stored in the NTFS file system (e.g. on a Windows server) but that isn't what Sharepoint Online uses. There is no record stored on a file in Sharepoint Online to say when it was last accessed. Apparently, when Sharepoint does something that shows files recently accessed, it works this out 'on the fly' using some sort of secret magic that only particularly gifted people understand!

We are trying to set up an automated house-keeping system (retention policies plus a flow) for our client's sprawling Sharepoint environment but are having to do it with Modified Date instead, which really isn't what the client wanted.