Has Attachment - email

[sammary]

I built a flow that watches an Outlook mailbox for emails. Any email that has an attachment has the attachment saved in a folder. Any email that doesn't have an attachment has the message body saved in a file in a different folder. The part of the flow that saves the attachments works perfectly. The part of the flow that saves the message body never works. This is what the condition block looks like

In other words, the Has Attachment never returns a False. I have tried testing the length of the attachment and using the Boolean function ('True' and 'False) with the same results. Some of the comments in these blogs seem to indicate that Has Attachment maybe "broken" and CoPilot seems to "think" that it isn't really looking at the attachment.

Does anyone have any thoughts on how to resolve my issue?

Thanks

Sam

[Nived_Nambiar]

Hi @sammary 

The reason why it is saying Has Attachments = True always is because the email may contains images which it considered as inline attachments (attached with email body), that is the reason why has attachments appears true, to handle this, see below

Use filter array to filter the attachments details with removing the inline attachments from it 

Now use the filter array's output to check whether attachments exists with the mail or not like below

If the above condition is true- that means no attachments, so you can export the email

if false, save each file as attachment- remember to use output from filter array as it contains non-inline attachments 

Hope it helps !

Thanks & Regards,

Nived N 🚀

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[sammary]

This great but I'm not sure of how the flow works.

In your version the mail comes in gets filtered and then the condition decides if there is an attachment or not. In this scenario what if I have more than 1 email coming into the Outlook inbox? Where does the Apply to Each go such that all emails are processed?

Thank you very much

[sammary]

This is my new flow based on your advice and how I understood the flow to work

Where the Filter array looks like this (Boolean is set to False) and the condition is set like this

After running a test this is what I get

I made no changes to the Apply to each box.

Obviously I didn't follow your advice correctly.

[Nived_Nambiar]

Hi @sammary 

could you share details of error- also please follow my flow design, that can help !

Thanks & Regards,

Nived N 🚀

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[sammary]

Hi Nived,

I have been out of the office for a few days and was unable to work on this project. Hopefully, later this week I will get a chance to review your suggested changes. That said, in looking at them quickly I don't see how the changes allow for multiple emails to be processed. Hopefully once I implement your suggestions I will have a better understanding of how the flow works.

I really appreciate your help as this is all new to me and not as obvious as I thought it would be.

Sam

[Nived_Nambiar]

Hi @sammary 

the flow works trigger wise when email arrives in mailbox, so when another email arrives- another instance of flow will starts.

Thanks & Regards,

Nived N 🚀

LinkedIn: Nived N's LinkedIn
YouTube: Nived N's YouTube Channel
Blog: Nived Nambiar's Blogs

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[sammary]

Nived,

I finally finished my other project and I'm back to Power Automate.

I'm trying to replicate the flow in the False branch that you are suggesting but I'm having some issues:

- In the Apply to Each function is not showing me Body for the Filter, I'm seeing Attachment. How do I get to see body?

- In the True branch I have selected Export email (V2). I'm using Message Id as Message, do I need to set the advanced parameter? In my flow I used Create File, which worked but I would need to add a way to save the attachment with a new name.

I apologize if my questions are pretty basic but this is really my first attempt at creating a Power Automate flow and I REALLY appreciate your help

Sam

[sammary]

Sorry, here are the screenshots

[Nived_Nambiar]

Hi @sammary 

Not sure why you are not seeing filter array body dynamic content, I think there is some issue due to modern design, just move to classic design and see whether you are able to see body dynamic content of filter array by toggling the below option like below

Also i have forget to add one thing in the flow, using create file after export email scenario. Try to add that as well as shown below

Thanks & Regards,

Nived N 🚀

LinkedIn: Nived N's LinkedIn
YouTube: Nived N's YouTube Channel
Blog: Nived Nambiar's Blogs

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[sammary]

Nived,

You have been amazingly helpful, thank you VERY much.

Some other person helped me to get the emails with attachments and that works perfectly. So, all I need to do is get the emails without attachments to download. For these files I will have to write a Python program to extract a hyperlink that opens a PDF and then saves that PDF.

For some reason I assumed that the false condition meant that there was no attachment. I see that I was incorrect and will apply the flow that I have that I know works for the attachments. As for your flow I'm still having issues. The flow works however the file is empty. Also, the .eml creates an email file so I changed it to a .txt to see if that would make any difference, it didn't. Again, I need to make sure that the hyperlink remains in the file, that's the only part of the file that I really need. There are other parts but with some work I can get that information out of the PDF.

[Nived_Nambiar]

Hi @sammary 

Ok now got it- you need pdf version of email when there are no attachments correct ? if yes - follow this approach for actions so to get pdf version of email. Note that export email gives the eml format of email.

I will explain what changes u need to make in actions with respect to when no attachments are present in email. 

See below

once trigger for email arrived is added and email attachments are filtered based on whether attachment is isline 

Now using the condition using output of filter array to check whether there are any attachments present in it using below condition

This condition check whether the email do not have any attachment. if yes it follows actions in Yes branch

Here we have to use onedrive actions instead of sharepoint so that we can convert the file to pdf format as well in end.

1. export the email in eml format

2. create an eml file with export email content 

3. convert the file to pdf format which is created

4. use create file to create pdf file based of converted file like below

Hope this helps !

Thanks & Regards,

Nived N 🚀

LinkedIn: Nived N's LinkedIn
YouTube: Nived N's YouTube Channel
Blog: Nived Nambiar's Blogs

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[sammary]

Nived,

Hope you had a great and safe weekend.

Sorry if I'm being confusing. The email without attachments contains a hyperlink. I need to be able to click on that hyperlink which will bring up a PDF file that I need to save and rename with information that I get from the PDF. All this means is that I don't care what format the downloaded email is in as long as I can access and execute the hyperlink. Does that help?

[sammary]

Nived,

I apologize for being a burden, I'm sure you are tired of hearing from me, please don't give up.

Attached is my complete flow where nothing works. When I run a test it says everything is working fine but I am not getting any downloaded files or message bodies. I have attached my complete flow. Hopefully you will have some time to review what I've done and help me.

Again, thank you for all your support and ideas

[Nived_Nambiar]

Hi @sammary 

It seems to be correct only, so when you convert it to pdf (i meant the email) are you not able to see the hyperlink ?

Thanks & Regards,

Nived N 🚀

LinkedIn: Nived N's LinkedIn
YouTube: Nived N's YouTube Channel
Blog: Nived Nambiar's Blogs

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[sammary]

Nived,

The flow indicates success but no files are downloaded.

[Nived_Nambiar · Accepted solution]

Hi @sammary 

Wondering why file (pdf file and eml file) are not created in Attachments folder (i see u are saving in attachments folder ) even flow is working successfully 🤔

Thanks & Regards,

Nived N 🚀

LinkedIn: Nived N's LinkedIn
YouTube: Nived N's YouTube Channel
Blog: Nived Nambiar's Blogs

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[sammary]

Thanks Nived

[Nived_Nambiar]

Hi @sammary 

could you confirm whether issue is resolved ?

Thanks & Regards,

Nived N 🚀

LinkedIn: Nived N's LinkedIn
YouTube: Nived N's YouTube Channel
Blog: Nived Nambiar's Blogs

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[sammary]

Nived,

This flow is making me crazy. Crazy enough to look at the flow output from each step. Two emails were sent to the box I am watch and I can see the data in the raw output from the section that watches for emails. Neither email had an attachment.

The next portion of the flow is the filter, the raw output was interesting in that it was minimal but I think this is what I would expect since there were no attachment. This is what the flow looks like

And this is what the output looks like

The decision resulted in a True condition which was expected, no attachments.

The first flow point in Yes is the Export email (v2) and I can see the body of the mail, all 35 pages, what I would expect to see if looking at the header and PDF code

The next point in the flow is the Create File and again it looks like I would have expected it

The next flow point is to create a PDF file from the output, I'm not sure this is successful, but honestly I have no idea what I'm looking at:

Notice the file content looks like a string of random numbers and letters. 

And the final point in the flow looks like this

I was looking for something that might have indicated that there was a failure but nothing sticks out. Hopefully you might see something.