Automating Movement of Folders

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Posted on by postproduction

Hello Power Automate Community!

I am trying to move folders in one folder to another folder in the same folder.

I know that Power Automate has the "move folder" function but my situation is a bit more complicated than that.

For example, the main folder will have folders entitled "130", "140", and "150". The main folder will constantly be receiving downloaded content as new folders and they will be called, for example "130_helloworld". This folder would need to automatically move to the parent folder of "130". Is there a way to ask Power Automate to scan all the folders in the parent folder (where folders "130", "140", and "150" are located) and then scan if there are any folder with the same name but have an underscore after it (e.g. 130_helloworld) and move it to folder "130".

Thanks a lot and any help would be highly appreciated!

Best,

Shant

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ccc333ab 1,144 on at

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Here would be an approach, but have one assumption in this soclution. That is, the naming convention of your folders that will get added in will alwaysbe "###_Name of your new folder". They key here is the underscore.

1. Use trigger "When a file is created (properties only)" to trigger flow when a folder is added.
2. I am checking to see if the item added is a folder, and that the filename has an underscore in it. If it doesn't, then don't do anything.
Note: The No side of this condition is blank.

3. Using a Compose just to extract out the text to the left of the underscore. (I'll use 135_NewOne for this example).

first(split(triggerOutputs()?['body/{FilenameWithExtension}'],'_'))
4. Find the folder with the text found on the left hand side of the underscore (i.e., 135), with a Get files (properties only). This is done with a Get files (properties only) and using a filter query.
5. And finally, do the move folder step. This will be in an Apply to each loop because of the Get Files query, but you should only ever get 1 folder from your filter query.
Notes: When selecting the dynamic content for the folder to move and destination folder, make sure you use:
Folder to move: Use the Identifier from the trigger (When a file is created step)
Destination Folder: Use Folder Path and Name from Get files (properties only)

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postproduction 10 on at

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Thanks a lot for your comprehensive answer!!! This all makes sense to me but are you executing the above on a cloud environment and using sharepoint? I would like to do so on a desktop environment but cannot find the same triggers. Do you know how to do it on a desktop environment?

Thanks a lot and looking forward!

Best,
Shant

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ccc333ab 1,144 on at

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Sorry, yes, this was a Power Automate solution, and I actually haven't used Power Automate Desktop so can't help you out.

Your best bet would be to post this question in the "Power Automate Desktop" forum.

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Matt44 2 on at

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Hey @ccc333ab, within the condition what expression did you input to get the "true" for IsFolder > is equal to > .

Thanks.

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ccc333ab 1,144 on at

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The expression is exactly as displayed, checking to see if IsFolder is equal to true. Make sure to:
Use "IsFolder" from the list of dynamic properties from the trigger (which is When a file is created (properties only)
Create the true value as an expressino (click the of the trigger "When doing this, make sure you type in "true" as an expression

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