Power Automate Save Email Attachment to SharePoint: A Tested Flow

To make Power Automate save email attachment to SharePoint, use the Outlook trigger When a new email arrives (V3) with Include Attachments set to Yes. Then add SharePoint Create file inside an Apply to each loop, and map the attachment name and content.

I built this exact flow, sent it a real vendor invoice with a logo in the body, and checked the library. It saved the PDF and skipped the logo. Two test results didn’t match what most tutorials say, so I’ll show you those too.

What Does the Flow Look Like?

The finished flow has just three steps. Here’s what each one does in my build:

Step	Action	What it does
1	When a new email arrives (V3)	Watches the Inbox for emails with “Vendor Invoice” in the subject that have attachments
2	Filter array	Removes inline images, such as logos pasted into the email body
3	Apply to each + Create file	Saves every remaining attachment to a SharePoint document library

I used a demo site with a folder named Email Attachments in the default Documents library. If you’re new to cloud flows, my Power Automate tutorials hub covers triggers, actions, and dynamic content first.

How Do You Set Up the Outlook Trigger?

Create an automated cloud flow and pick the Office 365 Outlook trigger When a new email arrives (V3). Then open Advanced parameters and set these values:

1. Folder: Inbox, or the folder your Outlook rule moves these emails into.
2. Include Attachments: Yes. Without it, the trigger doesn’t return the file content.
3. Only with Attachments: Yes, so emails without files never start a run.
4. Subject Filter: a word or phrase from the subject. I used Vendor Invoice.

The subject filter matches text anywhere in the subject line. My test email was titled “Vendor Invoice NW-10482 – Northwind Supply”, and the trigger fired within a few seconds.

For rules the basic filters can’t handle, like two senders or a subject that must start with a word, use Power Automate trigger conditions in the trigger settings.

How Do You Skip Inline Images and Signature Logos?

Add a Filter array action after the trigger. Set From to the Attachments dynamic content, then build the condition isInline is equal to false.

If you switch to advanced mode, the same filter looks like this:

@equals(item()?['isInline'], false)

This matters more than you’d think. My test email had a small Northwind logo pasted in the body. The trigger returned it as attachment 0 with isInline = true, next to the PDF with isInline = false.

Attachment	contentType	size	isInline	Kept by the filter?
northwind-logo.png	image/png	2,869	true	No
NW-10482-invoice.pdf	application/pdf	72,381	false	Yes

Without this step, every signature logo and social icon ends up in your library as image001.png. The filter works the same way as the blank checks in my guide on the Power Automate condition if blank.

Want only PDFs? Combine two checks in advanced mode:

@and(equals(item()?['isInline'], false), endsWith(toLower(item()?['name']), '.pdf'))

How Do You Save Each Attachment With Create File?

Add an Apply to each loop and select the Body output of Filter array as its input. Inside the loop, add SharePoint Create file and fill in four fields:

1. Site Address: pick your SharePoint site.
2. Folder Path: browse to the library folder, such as /Shared Documents/Email Attachments.
3. File Name: the attachment name, with a date prefix (explained below).
4. File Content: the attachment contentBytes.

Here are the two values from my flow. The loop is named Apply_to_each, so update the name if you rename yours:

concat(formatDateTime(triggerOutputs()?['body/receivedDateTime'], 'yyyyMMdd-HHmmss'), '-', items('Apply_to_each')?['name'])

items('Apply_to_each')?['contentBytes']

You don’t need base64ToBinary() around the content. My saved PDF was 72,157 bytes, the exact size of the original file, and it opened fine in SharePoint.

What Happens When the File Name Already Exists?

Create file overwrote it. I ran a separate test flow that saved duplicate-name-test.txt twice with different text. Both actions succeeded, the file held the second text, and its version changed to 2.0.

That’s risky with vendor emails, because every invoice can arrive as invoice.pdf. The old file stays in version history, but users only see the latest one. A unique prefix stops that.

I used the received time in the name. Keep in mind that receivedDateTime is in UTC, so my evening email got a 01:34 timestamp. To use Eastern time, convert it first:

convertFromUtc(triggerOutputs()?['body/receivedDateTime'], 'Eastern Standard Time', 'yyyyMMdd-HHmmss')

More format codes are in my Power Automate formatDateTime guide. If two files can arrive in the same second, use guid() as the prefix instead.

Does the SharePoint Folder Need to Exist First?

No, only the library does. In my test, Create file saved to /Shared Documents/Email Attachments/2026-10-13, a folder that didn’t exist, and SharePoint created it. Microsoft’s connector notes say the path must start with an existing library.

That makes a folder per day simple. Put this expression in Folder Path:

concat('/Shared Documents/Email Attachments/', formatDateTime(triggerOutputs()?['body/receivedDateTime'], 'yyyy-MM-dd'))

Avoid sender names or subjects in folder paths unless you clean them first. Characters such as : * ? " < > | aren’t allowed in SharePoint names. For date-only logic, you can also set a variable to today’s date once and reuse it.

Can You Save Attachments From a Shared Mailbox?

Yes. Use the trigger When a new email arrives in a shared mailbox (V2) and enter the shared address, such as ap@contoso.com. The connection account needs full access to that mailbox.

Microsoft notes that new mailbox permissions can take about two hours to replicate. If the trigger never fires right after you get access, wait before you rebuild anything.

For busy mailboxes, Microsoft suggests setting Include Attachments to No and adding Get Attachment (V2) inside the loop. It downloads one attachment at a time by message ID and attachment ID, which avoids trigger timeouts.

Why Are Attachments Not Saving to SharePoint?

Open the failed or empty run and check each step from the top. These are the causes I’d check first:

Symptom	Likely cause and fix
Flow never starts	Wrong folder or subject filter. Check which folder your Outlook rule moves the email into.
Run succeeds but no file	Include Attachments is No, or every attachment was inline. Check the Filter array output.
Logos saved as image001.png	No inline filter. Add Filter array with isInline equal to false.
Older file replaced	Same file name. Add a timestamp or guid() prefix.
Flow runs twice, first run empty	Defender Dynamic Delivery. Add a condition that the attachments length is greater than 0.
Attached email (.msg) missing	The connector doesn’t support item attachments. Microsoft’s workaround is a Graph call through HTTP with Microsoft Entra ID.

For the Dynamic Delivery case, this check returns true only when the run actually has files. The same type rules apply as when you convert a string to an integer, so compare numbers, not text:

greater(length(triggerOutputs()?['body/attachments']), 0)

Microsoft also warns that digitally signed emails can return incorrect attachment content. Test signed messages separately before you trust the flow with them.

Create file has a few more surprises, such as invalid characters and the %25 problem. I tested 13 cases in my guide to SharePoint Create file in Power Automate.

Save Email Attachments to SharePoint Cheat Sheet

Every value below comes from the flow I built and ran for this post.

Need	Setting or expression
Trigger	When a new email arrives (V3)
Return file content	Include Attachments = Yes
Skip emails without files	Only with Attachments = Yes
Skip inline images	@equals(item()?['isInline'], false)
File name	items('Apply_to_each')?['name']
File content	items('Apply_to_each')?['contentBytes']
Avoid overwrites	concat(guid(), '-', items('Apply_to_each')?['name'])
Folder per day	concat('/Shared Documents/Email Attachments/', formatDateTime(utcNow(), 'yyyy-MM-dd'))

Frequently Asked Questions

More Power Automate Tutorials

Once your files land in SharePoint, these are the next posts I’d read:

• adding days to a date with addDays()
• formatting dates with ordinal suffixes
• Power Apps vs Power Automate: when to use each
• Power Automate vs Power BI explained