Power Platform Community Forum Thread Details

Can power automate check an email attachment of a excel document to see if it contains any data.

I received a daily email with the excel attachment, most days it's an empty file and I would like to check it and if empty then move it to my deleted email folder.

is this possible with power automate

Categories:

Power Automate Desktop

HI @MH-11031519-0,

Yes, Power Automate can do this. Here is one approach using cloud flows.

The flow logic

Trigger: "When a new email arrives" (Outlook connector), filtered to emails with attachments.

Then:

Add a condition to check if the attachment filename ends with .xlsx or .xls.

Use the "Get attachment content" action to retrieve the file bytes.

Run a "Create file" action in OneDrive/SharePoint to temporarily save the attachment.

Use the Excel "List rows present in a table" action on that saved file.

Check if the returned rows array is empty (length(body('List_rows')?['value']) equals 0).

If empty, use the "Move email" action to send it to your Deleted Items folder.

If not empty, leave it or process it normally.

One thing to know

The Excel "List rows" action requires the data to be in a named Table inside the sheet, not just raw cell data. If the daily file uses plain ranges instead of a formatted Table, the action will error out. In that case, use "Run script" (Office Scripts) to count used rows and return a boolean instead.

Alternative for unstructured files

Office Scripts Action: Write a short script that checks sheet.getUsedRange() and returns whether it is null or has zero rows. Pass that result back to your condition step.

The move-to-deleted step

Use the Outlook "Move email" action. Set the destination folder to "DeletedItems". You will need the email ID from the trigger output.

This works reliably for daily automated emails. The main failure point is the Excel table requirement, so check the attachment format first before building the flow.

Thank you!
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