Power Platform Community Forum Thread Details

I used to "import" and "export" workflows by copying my written ones into a text file and pasting them into a Power Automate Desktop on another computer. But sometimes, this method doesn't work, and no steps are added when pasting in another Power Automate Desktop environment.
Is there a format or encoding limitation that is causing the paste to fail?

Categories:

Power Automate Desktop

Hi @kevinyu26 ,

Yes, there could be a few reasons why copying and pasting workflows between Power Automate Desktop environments might fail1:

Format or Encoding Limitation: The copied text might not be in the correct format or encoding that Power Automate Desktop expects. Each exported workflow is represented as a JSON file. Flow definitions were traditionally a compact block of JSON in a single line. In February 2022 the export format was changed to multi-line formatted JSON to make them easier to read and make them friendlier to revision tracking in source control.

Subflow Limitation: Only one subflow can be copied at a time3. If there are more than one subflows, repeat the procedure for each one individually or save the actions into separate text files.
Connection Limitation: Desktop flows connection cannot be shared with other users.
Package Limitation: Export and import packages have the file format.zip.

To avoid these issues, you might want to consider using the built-in import/export functionality in Power Automate Desktop. This includes sharing the desktop flow directly through the Power Automate portal or exporting a solution that contains the desktop flow. These methods ensure that the workflows are correctly formatted and encoded for import into another Power Automate Desktop environment.

(Note:- if you got your solution you can mark as solution and gives kudos)

Thanks & Regards

Vishnu Reddy