Move Files between Folders based on File Extension

[superbackhand]

Using Power Automate Desktop, how to I create a flow to move files between folders based on file extension? 

For example, I want to:

• Move all .xlsx files into Folder 1.
• Move all .ppt files into Folder 2.
• Move all .pdf files into Folder 3.

Hope anyone can advise, thanks! 

[DiegoEscobar1]

Hello @superbackhand . You can use the trigger "When a file is created in a folder" and then use the "Switch" control comparing with the content-type output from the trigger (@{triggerOutputs()?['headers/Content-Type']})

Here is the flow:

And here, the contect-type to compare with:

• ppt: application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.presentationml.presentation
• xlsx: application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.spreadsheetml.sheet
• pdf: application/pdf

I used the notifications actions instead of the the "Move File" action below, just for simplicity.

 Hope it helps!

Regards.

Diego.

[Henrik_M · Accepted solution]

There are two main methods:

Method 1 - Get set of files by extension, and move them all

You will need to Get files in folder with a file filter, and then Move files the %Files% variable.

3 times, so 6 actions in total.

Method 2 - Get all files, and loop through to move by extension

You will need to Get files in folder without a file filter, and then a For each loop.

In the loop, you can then use If conditional to check if %CurrentItem.Extension% equals .xlsx and so on.

1 loop, 3 conditional blocks, so 11 actions long in total.

Method 1 is cleanest, but method 2 is more versatile if there are more parameters of the files to be considered.

[superbackhand]

Thanks @Henrik_M !! 

I have tested both methods. The first one works. For the second one, it got stuck at the first loop and kept repeating there. 

Am new to Power Automate, so have to figure out the basic functions too. 

Method 1:

Method 2:

[superbackhand]

Thanks @DiegoEscobar1 

This is using Flow on the site? I will try it as I go along, after I get more proficient on the Desktop Automate app. Thanks for the tip! 

[DiegoEscobar1]

HI!

Yes, I am using Flow. Sorry I didn't see you wanted to use Power Automate Desktop.

Anyway, if you are looking to do this tasks on cloud files like Ondrive or SharePoint, I recommend to use Flow.

Regards.