Download file content of all item versions (history) in a SharePoint document library

[tho1971]

Hi

I created a flow to go through all versions of a sharepoint item in a document library. I can get the VersionLabel and VersionId but I'm not able to get the file content of each version. Is there a way to do that in power automate?

Below is my flow. It works except the last step to get the version file content. 

Cheers Harald.

[Mohammad3Amer · Accepted solution]

To be able to get the file content of each version, you could use (Get Request) with (Send an HTTP request to SharePoint)

Site Address: yourSiteAddress

Type: Get
Sample Uri: _api/web/getfilebyserverrelativeurl('/sites/xyz/Description.docx')/versions

You will get results that contains Urls for all versions of this file like the sample below

{
"d": {
"results": [
{
"__metadata": {
"id": "https://xyz.sharepoint.com/sites/SiteName/_api/SP.FileVersionGuid",
"uri": "https://xyz.sharepoint.com/sites/SiteName/_api/SP.FileVersionGuid",
"type": "SP.FileVersion"
},
"CreatedBy": {
"__deferred": {
"uri": "https://xyz.sharepoint.com/sites/SiteName/_api/SP.FileVersionGuid/CreatedBy"
}
},
"CheckInComment": "",
"Created": "2020-01-18T14:28:21Z",
"ID": 512,
"IsCurrentVersion": false,
"Length": "543967",
"Size": 543967,
"Url": "_vti_history/512/Shared Documents/xyz/Description.docx",
"VersionLabel": "1.0"
},
{
...
...
}
]
}
}

Try to reuse this URL ""Url": "_vti_history/512/Shared Documents/xyz/Description.docx" to download file versions

[pityman]

Hi,

i am able to get the URL": "_vti_history/512/Shared Documents/xyz/Description.docx" . how can i copy/move the file using power automate with that url?

[tho1971]

Hi

You can use the action "Get file content using path" to get the file content and save it wherever you want.

[pityman]

Hi
Thank you for your reply. Unfortunately it doesnt work. file not found for file version history with link "_vti_history/512/Shared Documents/xyz/xxx.docx"

[sfreitas]

I've the same issue. 

Anyone have a solution for this issue? 

When I use the link in browser I can see the right document, but in Power Automate I have always an error " File not found".

[mrniklass]

Has someone solved this one? I have the _vti_history/512/Shared Documents/xyz/xxx.docx URL but I cannot figure out how to download the file.

[Anonymous]

Hello, I'm having the same issue. 

_vti_history/id/xxxxxxx.xlsx is working fine on my browser but I'm not able to make it work on power automate. 
The error is that the file is not found.

Have anyone find a workaround ? Thank you 

[sacc]

Hi all! our customer also need this funcionality and hope it will be implemented soon.
please let's vote this https://ideas.powerautomate.com/d365community/idea/278874ce-1674-ee11-a81c-6045bd804ee3

[jfung]

To get the actual file content of a prior version, we were not able to use the _vti_history link as other posters indicated it doesn't work. Instead, we used the Send an HTTP request to SharePoint action, and used the API call:  _api/web/lists/getbytitle('Library Name')/items(1)/file/versions(512)/$value

'Library Name' -> replace with your library
items(1) -> replace 1 with the ID of your document

versions(512) -> multiple the version you want * 512. so version 2 would be versions(1024) - Note: this calculation does not work to get the latest version

This post has more details: https://powerusers.microsoft.com/t5/Building-Flows/Get-SharePoint-List-Item-Previous-Version-Informa...

[alecrim1170]

Hi jung! 

As you suggest , I've tried to use the api rest (with the relative change on library name e ID ) _api/web/lists/getbytitle('Library Name')/items(1)/file/versions(512)/$value  but it doesn't work with this error: 

{

  "status": 400,

  "message": "Invalid request.\r\nclientRequestId: 04a4bff8-3fa4-4dc4-a15a-731c38ba2961\r\nserviceRequestId: 1453eea0-5b64-3010-61e2-260d7f1269b0",

  "source": "",

  "errors": [

    "-1",

    "Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.InvalidClientQueryException"

  ]

I need to download the previous file version content and not only the information of previous versions as showed in the the post that you have shared

I get the file version information using this api: _api/web/getfilebyserverrelativeurl('relative file path')/versions 

[jfung]

You may need to add these headers

Accept

application/json; odata=nometadata

[alecrim1170]

yes of course I was already using this header

Accept

application/json; odata=nometadata

[jfung]

Sorry @alecrim1170 , I'm not sure why you are getting that error. I would double-check the different parameters are correct. 

• Method: GET
• items(###): is the ID of an existing document
• versions(###): is multiple of 512 and is not the calculation for the latest version

That's the only thing I can think of since it is working for us. Also, just FYI, if you do try to get latest version it returns a different error than what you got so I don't think that is the issue either but not sure what else it could be. This is the error that would return for trying to get latest version:

{"odata.error":{"code":"-1, Microsoft.Data.OData.ODataException","message":{"lang":"en-US","value":"Cannot write the value 'null' in raw format."}}}
clientRequestId: <id>
serviceRequestId: <id>