Retrieve email messages from outlook [Power Automate Desktop]

[ArunkumarK]

Hi Everyone,

I am trying to save the outlook attachments into OneDrive using Power Automate Desktop. I am getting an error in the initial setup itself as "Failed to retrieve email messages from Outlook".

[Expiscornovus]

Hi @ArunkumarK,

Can you check if the account value is exactly the same as the name of the Outlook account (data file name)?

You can find the account name in the account settings of Outlook.

Can you also double check if the Mail folder value is using the full folder path format?

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-gb/power-automate/desktop-flows/actions-reference/outlook#retrieveemai...

[ArunkumarK]

Hi @Expiscornovus ,

Thanks for your reply.

Yes I mentioned the same account name. In my case account name and the email address are the same.

[Expiscornovus]

Hi @ArunkumarK,

Can you share a screenshot of the configuration of your Retrieve email message from Outlook action from your desktop flow setup?

Or alternatively copy the action and paste the configuration as code in here.

Below is an example of my action which I used for testing.

Outlook.RetrieveEmails Instance: OutlookInstance Account: OutlookDataFileName MailFolder: MailFolder EmailsToRetrieve: Outlook.RetrieveMessagesMode.Unread MarkAsRead: False SubjectContains: $'''PIM''' Messages=> RetrievedEmails

[ArunkumarK]

Screenshot:

Copied the Action Items:

Outlook.RetrieveEmails Instance: OutlookInstance Account: <REMOVEDBYME> MailFolder: $'''Inbox''' EmailsToRetrieve: Outlook.RetrieveMessagesMode.All MarkAsRead: True Messages=> RetrievedEmails

Error Details:

Exception has been thrown by the target of an invocation.: Robin.Core.ActionException: Failed to retrieve email messages from Outlook ---> System.Reflection.TargetInvocationException: Exception has been thrown by the target of an invocation. ---> System.Runtime.InteropServices.COMException: Error HRESULT E_FAIL has been returned from a call to a COM component.
--- End of inner exception stack trace ---
at System.RuntimeType.InvokeDispMethod(String name, BindingFlags invokeAttr, Object target, Object[] args, Boolean[] byrefModifiers, Int32 culture, String[] namedParameters)
at System.RuntimeType.InvokeMember(String name, BindingFlags bindingFlags, Binder binder, Object target, Object[] providedArgs, ParameterModifier[] modifiers, CultureInfo culture, String[] namedParams)
at System.Type.InvokeMember(String name, BindingFlags invokeAttr, Binder binder, Object target, Object[] args, CultureInfo culture)
at Robin.Modules.Outlook.Actions.OutlookActions.GetProperty(Object o, String propertyName)
at Robin.Modules.Outlook.Actions.OutlookActions.RetrieveEmailMessagesFromOutlook(Variant outlookInstance, Variant account, Variant mailFolder, Variant fromContains, Variant toContains, Variant subjectContains, Variant bodyContains, Variant sentSince, Variant sentUpTo, Variant saveAttachmentsInto, Variant& retrievedEmails, Int32 retrieveCategory, Int32 attachmentsOption, Boolean markAsRead)
--- End of inner exception stack trace ---
at Robin.Modules.Outlook.Actions.RetrieveEmailMessages.Execute(ActionContext context)
at Robin.Runtime.Engine.ActionRunner.RunAction(String action, Dictionary`2 inputArguments, Dictionary`2 outputArguments, IActionStatement statement)

[Expiscornovus]

Hi @ArunkumarK,

I can reproduce this issue when I try to retrieve all email messages from my Inbox.

Can you try and use some other conditions? When you switch to only unread emails form the Inbox does it work in your desktop flow?

Outlook.RetrieveEmails Instance: OutlookInstance Account: OutlookDataFileName MailFolder: $'''Inbox''' EmailsToRetrieve: Outlook.RetrieveMessagesMode.Unread MarkAsRead: False Messages=> RetrievedEmails

[ArunkumarK]

Hi @Expiscornovus ,

I tried both as well but same error.

And just FYI, Mark as unread options is to flag the unread emails as read. our action will read all the email messages irrelevant to read or unread emails. Please correct me if i am wrong.

[Expiscornovus]

Hi @ArunkumarK,

Sorry that I wasn't clear. I was talking about setting the Retrieve field to a different option.

It feels like we are both hitting a limit/time-out issue or something like that.

To be clear, my inbox folder has 10000+ items. Only retrieving the unread email messages reduces that query a lot.

[ArunkumarK]

Oh Apologies I was misunderstood.

As suggested, tried the options but the same error. Is there anything security settings needs to changed in outlook?

[Expiscornovus]

Hi @ArunkumarK,

I am not aware of any additional security settings required. You can already access the same account and Inbox in your Outlook, correct?

Have you tested any of the other outlook actions? You might want to run a test with for instance the send email through Outlook via that same account. This way you can troubleshoot if it is an account related issue.

[ArunkumarK]

No, there is no issues with the outlook account. Just for additional investigation I asked for. Actually, I can access and all are working fine with the outlook when I used Power Automate web, but its not working in Power Automate Desktop.

FYI, I will receive csv files to my email daily and needs to load into sql, but in web version, csv options are not available hence moved to desktop version.

[ArunkumarK · Accepted solution]

Hi @Expiscornovus ,

Finally found the reason for the error!!!. You will smile a lot after understood the reason.

Actually, I didn't mention any values for From, To, Subject etc., it seems that any one of the fields to be filled for running the outlook instance. Atleast Microsoft should display any asterisk symbol or any information in the error to understand better.

Just wanna share the problem and solution to you.

Thank you so much for your active support !!!

[Expiscornovus]

Hi @ArunkumarK,

Great to hear that you have found the solution 🙂

[CesarRamirez]

Hi everyone,

I tried what @ArunkumarK said, e.g. like this:

It seems works because no error is generated, but the RetrivedEmails response is empty when it shouldn't be.

I tried put a empty variable (see example below), but the error "Failed to retrieve email messages from Outlook"  again appear.

 ( with: %' '% too)

Thanks for any help.

[fraenK]

Those arguments are optional, so there might be something wrong with your other arguments.

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/power-automate/desktop-flows/actions-reference/outlook#retrieveemai...

[CesarRamirez]

Thanks @fraenK 
I think all my required arguments are ok:
- The Outlook instance is created by Launch Outlook Action:

- I verified muy Account in Account Settings:

- And the main Mail folder in my case is:

However I tried creating another folder and the same error is generated.

[fraenK]

It works fine for me so if the values are correct, maybe there is something wrong with your Outlook/Office installation? Quick or online repair?

[CesarRamirez]

@fraenK  could you check your Programmatic Access configuration please?, in:
- Outlook Options > Trust Center > Trust Center Settings > Programmatic Access

I believe it could be this, and I would like compare with your configuration that works fine.
Thanks in advance.

[fraenK]

In my Outlook settings the first option is selected

[CesarRamirez]

Hi everyone,

The problem was "Programmatic Access Security" settings, after selecting the first option it was solved and the Outlook Actions works fine.

[SOLUTION]:

Tks,