MS Form Attachment to Email - GetFileContent via Path File Not Found For Some Files Despite Existing on SharePoint

[tbrock_troc]

I have a flow that takes an MS Form submission with multiple attachments and creates an email with the attachments included. My flow has been active for about 4 weeks and has been triggered and completed successfully 4 times prior. However, the most recent (5th) trigger has failed due to a 404 File Not Found error even though the file exists in SharePoint.

I use a condition to determine if the submission has an attachment and the error is occurring at the first step in the "yes" side of the condition - it is Get File Content using Path in an Apply to Each action:

Interestingly, it appears this step worked on 2 of 5 attachments - attachments 1-3 appear to have failed while attachments 4-5 seemed to work properly:

• 1st attachment failed - note that the blacked out File Path opens the attachment in a browser window:

• 4th attachment succeeded

I re-triggered the flow via Power Automate dashboard and the flow failed at the same step for the same 3 files and succeeded for the same 2 files - this leads me to believe the issue is *not* related to the flow looking for files that have not yet been created in the SharePoint folder yet.

It is worth noting that the 3 failed attachments have very similar names as do the 2 successful attachments:

• 3 failed - "Screenshot 2024-04-17 at 11.XX.XX AM_First Last.png"
• 2 successful - "Chat SS3_First Last.jpg" and "Chat SS4_First Last.png"

So far, the only two things that come to mind:

• Is this character length issue of the longer named items?
  • I did check the SharePoint link lengths and the longer linked images came to 245 characters or something like that

• Are periods ('.') valid characters in SharePoint file names but cause issues with getting file content?

Thanks!

[creativeopinion · Accepted solution]

@tbrock_troc 

You might find this YT Tutorial helpful: How to Get Microsoft Form File Uploads Attached to an Email 📧

In this Microsoft Power Automate Tutorial I’m going to cover where file uploads from your Microsoft Forms are saved. I’ll also show you how attach the uploaded files to an email and how to dynamically name the files and customize the recipient of the email based on the selections made in your Microsoft Form. I will also cover how to handle responses that don’t include any file uploads.

IN THIS VIDEO:

‌✅‌ Two types of MS Forms

‌✅‌ Where Microsoft Personal (OneDrive) Form File Uploads are Saved

‌✅‌ Where Microsoft Group Form File Uploads are Saved

‌✅‌ How to Add a File Upload Question to an MS Form

‌✅‌ How to get a Microsoft Form ID

‌✅‌ How to get a Microsoft Form Response

‌✅‌ How to Get the Dynamic Content Microsoft Form File Upload Content

‌✅‌ How to handle Single and Multiple Microsoft Form File Uploads

‌✅‌ How to use a Scope action to Organize and Group Your Flow Actions

‌✅‌ How to Get the File Content from an MS Form File Upload

‌✅‌ How to Collect All Files Uploaded to a MS Form and Attach to an Email

‌✅‌ How to Handle MS Form Response When a File Isn’t Uploaded

‌✅‌ How to Create an Email Key

‌✅‌ How to Send an Email to a Specific Recipient Based on Form Selection

‌✅‌ How to Create a Dynamic Output Based on Form Selection

Hope this helps!

If I helped you solve your problem—please mark my post as a solution ✅.
Consider giving me a 👍 if you liked my response!

👉 Level up your Power Automate skills by checking out my tutorials on YouTube
👉 Tips and Tricks on TikTok and Instagram

[tbrock_troc]

Thanks @creativeopinion.

I will check it out.

[tbrock_troc]

Hi @creativeopinion ,

I had a chance to review a couple parts of your video and I an interested in the approach you took, but have a couple of questions:

• Regarding the "Email Key" compose step, is this something you can do with a question that allows for multiple responses? Is it as easy as just listing out each of the answer options just like you would with a single-select question?

• If I have multiple questions with answers that need to trigger an email, is it a separate "Email Key" action for each question needed or can I put all of the answers that need to trigger an email from multiple questions into a single "Email Key" action? Do you have a recommendation if both options technically work?

Thanks again!

[creativeopinion]

@tbrock_troc The "Email Key" was just an example of how you could return a value (such as an email) based on a selection made. However, my recommendation would be to use an Excel Table or SP list to store your "key". It would be a lot easier to manage.

It really depends on your use case and the logic required for your flow. If you could explain the logic of how you would need your flow to work—I could make some recommendations. I don't have enough information based on what you've shared so far to offer specific recommendations.

[tbrock_troc]

@creativeopinion ...thank you for taking the time to respond and thanks again for such an informative video.

The use of the compose action to create the email key seemed achievable based on my skill level.

I like the recommendation of using an Excel table or SP list to store the email key. With that said, I am an automation novice so I am struggling to visualize the actions and order necessary to recall that information from the SP table dynamically.

I think I would also need to understand how to set up the SP list - is it set up as a list of people with a column containing each of the answer options that should result in that person being included or a list of the answer options with a column containing all of the people that should be included if selected?

Do you have a video tutorial on that process?

As for our flow(s):

We have two MS forms - an audit/event request form and a post-audit/event survey - that will have similar needs in terms of dynamically created recipient lists based on responses to form questions. I am working on the audit/event request form first:

• Audit Account - multiple select
• Audit Product Category - multiple select
• Event Account - single select
• Event Product Category - multiple select
• Specific Account Event Product Category - multiple select

The account answer options are mostly the same - there are a couple of additional options in the Event Account question. The product category answer options for all 3 questions are the same. Just to make it easy, we'll say that some combination of the following will need to be notified based on the form selections to the questions above:

• 10 account teams
• 5 product teams

The form itself is set up with and parent question and branching so only a couple of the questions above will be answered for each submission:

• If Audit is selected in a parent
  • Audit Account
  • Audit Product Category

• If Event is selected in parent & child Event Account is any retailer except a specific retailer:
  • Event Account
  • Event Product Category

• If Event is selected in parent & child Event Account is the specific retailer:
  • Event Account
  • Specific Account Event Product Category

Example scenarios we might encounter:

• Audit request for 1-10 accounts and 1-5 product categories
• Event request for any account except specific account and 1-5 product categories
• Event request for specific account and 1-5 product categories

i.e. An audit request for mobile computing (category) at Office Depot and Staples (accounts) would generate a single email with the mobile computing product team and the Office Depot and Staples account teams as recipients.

i.e. An event request for gaming computing and mobile computing (categories) at Best Buy (account) would generate a single email with the gaming computing and mobile computing product teams and the Best Buy account teams as recipients.

Thanks and subscribed on YT.

Stretch goal - since some people are part of more than 1 account team, having a step that removes duplicate email addresses from the output string used in the email recipient field would be great.

I am pretty sure there aren't any issues with having the same recipient listed more than once in an Outlook email but it's just a nice "professional" detail, so this is just a nice-to-have.

[creativeopinion]

@tbrock_troc When looking at the logic of your flow I think you need to focus on the outcome which in this case are your two examples:

i.e. An audit request for mobile computing (category) at Office Depot and Staples (accounts) would generate a single email with the mobile computing product team and the Office Depot and Staples account teams as recipients.

i.e. An event request for gaming computing and mobile computing (categories) at Best Buy (account) would generate a single email with the gaming computing and mobile computing product teams and the Best Buy account teams as recipients.

You have a few options:

• Use a SP List/Excel Table to Store a list of categories and the respective product teams.
• Use a SP List/Excel Table to Store a list of Accounts and the account teams.
• Use a SP List/Excel Table to store both the categories and accounts with their respective recipients.

I'm unclear on how you are managing the recipients. In your examples, you state account teams, and product teams. I was assuming there was a shared mailbox or DL list. However, later in your post you indicate this:

Stretch goal - since some people are part of more than 1 account team, having a step that removes duplicate email addresses from the output string used in the email recipient field would be great.

Are you looking to assign users to each Account and/or Category? You need to come up with a system that works for your needs—I'm not sure on all your business requirements. Don't worry about duplicate email addresses at this point—there is a way to filter out email addresses so you only have a list of unique email addresses.

If you are wanting to assign individuals to Accounts and/or Categories you may have to consider using a SP List to track the recipients and then assigning them Accounts and Categories instead.

Hope this helps!

If I helped you solve your problem—please mark my post as a solution ✅.
Consider giving me a 👍 if you liked my response!

👉 Level up your Power Automate skills by checking out my tutorials on YouTube
👉 Tips and Tricks on TikTok and Instagram

[tbrock_troc]

Hi @creativeopinion:

My flow is far is more rudimentary that you're probably imagining.

Also, it may be worth noting that most of the recipients on this list are outside of my organization - I believe we can still add them as a person to a SharePoint list on our side.

---

@creativeopinion wrote:

I'm unclear on how you are managing the recipients.

---

When it comes to the email recipients, my current flow uses condition actions based on form responses to trigger the email action and each conditional email action has a fixed recipient list - there is a separate conditional email action for each individual account team and a separate email for each individual product management team. 

I've been tasked with finding a way to create a single email thread with the pertinent account and product management teams based on the form entries for account and product category.

---

@creativeopinion wrote:

• Use a SP List/Excel Table to store both the categories and accounts with their respective recipients.

---

This sounds ideal to me - I would only use it for managing the automations. Plus, not many people would have access to it but it would allow the few colleagues that would and who are less familiar with power automate to help manage the lists.

---

@creativeopinion wrote:

Are you looking to assign users to each Account and/or Category? 

If you are wanting to assign individuals to Accounts and/or Categories you may have to consider using a SP List to track the recipients and then assigning them Accounts and Categories instead.

---

I am not sure as I am pretty new to managing SP lists as well - as this list would be used strictly as an email key for automations and will have recipients from outside my organization listed, I am open to whichever approach is achievable and functional for mapping form responses to the email key.

Would it be better to set the SP List up where Account/Category options match the account and product category answer options in the form and the corresponding recipients are added to each option?

Or would it be better to have a list of people that are each assigned corresponding accounts/categories which match the form answer options?

Having typed this out and assuming Power Automate can pull in the necessary information to create a dynamic recipient list with either approach, I am slightly leaning toward the 2nd approach - but as I said, very open to recommendations.

Hope this helps and thanks again for your time and knowledge!

---

---

---

[tbrock_troc]

Hi @creativeopinion 

Thanks for your assistance here - as a short-term solution, I implemented the "compose" step version as in your video however that seems to only work with single-select questions. When it comes to the multi-select questions, it seems my time would be better spent working out the SP list solution than trying to learn how to use flow actions to parse parse the multi-select and map responses to email addresses.

My original issue appears to be an SP bug - user resubmitted with renamed versions of the 3 files that had failed and the flow ran successfully. Given this and your helpful video to create dynamic file naming with MS Forms attachments, I will accept your solution for this thread.

I will post a new thread that is more specific to my questions/needs in terms of using a SP list to create an email key to create dynamic recipient lists based on MS Form responses.

[creativeopinion]

@tbrock_troc Sorry I missed your post before your last one. I would recommend setting up your list in the second way:

This way it's easier to just delete an item if the person no longer exists and add/remove accounts. This list could potentially be used for other workflows you might want to create. 

Hope this helps!

If I helped you solve your problem—please mark my post as a solution ✅.
Consider giving me a 👍 if you liked my response!

👉 Level up your Power Automate skills by checking out my tutorials on YouTube
👉 Tips and Tricks on TikTok and Instagram

[tbrock_troc]

Thank you once again!

I was leaning this way already buy had not considered how much easier it makes management to just remove the entire item (person).

Now to learn how to dynamically recall members from this list using the MS Form responses.