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Power Platform Community / Forums / Power Automate / Move with Power Automa...
Power Automate
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Move with Power Automate Desktop an e-mail from my Inbox to a personal folder (.pst)

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Posted on by 8

I want to move selected e-mails in a .pst file stored on my local drive.
Within the last field "mailbox folder / Dossier de messagerie (in French)" I made many trials to address this local .pst folder:
- The name visible under Oulook folder list,
- The name of the .pst file itself,
- The name of the complete path and of the .pst file in my local drive (D:\ ... \ ... \ ...pst).
None of these trials were successfull.
I don't know if it's a problem of faisibility or of formating.
Thanks in advance for your help.

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  • MichaelAnnis Profile Picture
    5,727 Moderator on at

    Moving files is fairly easy regardless of the extension. So, it shouldn’t be an issue. 

    Track your variables in the flow and make sure you are getting what you need. Keep an eye out for lists versus single items. For instance, Get Files results in a list type variable, even if there is just one file. So, to get the first file, you have to use %Files[0]%.  Little things like that are usually the problem. If this doesn’t help, feel free to post your flow, so I can understand more of what you are doing. 

    best of luck!

  • Kiki_31 Profile Picture
    8 on at

    Hi Michael.

    Thanks for your reply. Indeed, I want to make this mode of message within Outlook. I realized that I missed this point.

    Here is the sequence of my very simple Flow I created for testing:

    - Launch Outlook

    - Retrieve electronic messages from Outlook => here I entered specific criteria

    - Process email messages in Outlook => It's here that I want to move the message from inbox to personnal .pst folder.

    - Close Outlook

    For the "Process" function, the Microsoft documentation provides the following description "The name of the folder to retrieve messages from. Enter the full folder path for subfolders (e.g., Inbox\Work)". It works for a folder located under the "Inbox" but I haven't found the way to enter the path for a personnal folder (.pst file on my local drive).

  • MichaelAnnis Profile Picture
    5,727 Moderator on at

    I tested this and it works as intended.  The path for any Inbox folder is Inbox\FolderName.  The path for any personal folder is just FolderName.

     

    So, I had this retrieve messages from Inbox\~PowerPlatformCommunity and move all emails with a specific criteria to ~Test (under my personal).

    MichaelAnnis_0-1631038410504.png

    If it is a personal folder, it should appear below Deleted Items:

    MichaelAnnis_1-1631038488186.png

     

    Best of luck!

  • Kiki_31 Profile Picture
    8 on at

    Hi Michael,

    Sorry to come back to you a bit later but this end of week was full...

    Indeed I have no problem to transfer an e-mail when it's under the Outlook account structure (Inbox, Draft, Sent Items, Deleted Items, "my folder", ...).

    My issue is when I want to move the e-mail in a different .pst file I have in addition to the Outlook account structure (e.g. "Dossiers 2017" or "Dossiers 2020" within the screenshot hereafter):

    Capture d’écran 2021-09-11 094313.png

    Here I haven't found the right way to address these "personnal" folders.

    Thanks again for your support.

  • Kiki_31 Profile Picture
    8 on at

    Hi Michael,

    Sorry to come back to you a bit later but this end of week was full...

    Indeed I have no problem to transfer an e-mail when it's under the Outlook account structure (Inbox, Draft, Sent Items, Deleted Items, "my folder", ...).

    My issue is when I want to move the e-mail in a different .pst file I have in addition to the Outlook account structure (e.g. "Dossiers 2017" or "Dossiers 2020" within the screenshot hereafter):

    Capture d’écran 2021-09-11 094313.png

    Here I haven't found the right way to address these "personnal" folders.

    Thanks again for your support.

  • MichaelAnnis Profile Picture
    5,727 Moderator on at

    Okay, so it’s a whole other email, not even a personal folder. 

    Try this:  drive:\Users\<username>\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Outlook
    At that location, typically C:\users…you should be able to find all the real files of whatever you are looking for, and. can transfer them as easily as moving a file from one folder to another. 

    Best of Luck!

  • Kiki_31 Profile Picture
    8 on at

    Hi Michael.

    I already tried that "complete path" solution (see my very first message of this chat) and it was not working :-(.

    Perhaps it's a mix which has to be done between the "Account" field and the "Folder" one.

    As I haven't found any documentation within Microsoft internet pages, I made many trials before posting this request and now I'm struggling with 2 issues:

    - First is that it could be that this move from inbox to archive (.pst) is simply not feasible. Then full stop.

    - Second is that, if it's feasible, without the exact format available, I can spend huge amount of time with "blind" trials.

    The best would be to have a Microsoft guy answering this point.

    Anyway, thanks for your support in helping me exploring possibilities for solving this issue. 

  • Blerian Profile Picture
    2 on at

    Hello kiki,

    I was struggling with the same issue for a while and the solution is quite straightforward.

    So if this is still relevant, on the the "Retrieve email messages from Outlook" menu, all you need to do is write the name of you .pst file on the Account section - so in your case "Dossiers 2017" / "Dossiers 2020" and the name of the folder would work the same way it does for the inbox.

     

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