Folder Actions in Power Automate Desktop
Managing folders is an important part of many business processes. Managing a large collection of folders is a time-consuming, tedious task. By automating these folder-related tasks, an organization can increase its productivity and reduce operating hours spent on repetitive processes.
In this article, we will learn some of the most common uses of folder actions on the Microsoft Power Automate Desktop.
Creating a flow with the folder actions
- Open Power Automate Desktop App.
- Firstly, we need to create a flow. Click on New flow.
- Create a flow name folder-automation in Power Automate Desktop.
- We have three folders created named Mountains, Beaches, and Lakes folder in PC or on Desktop in File-Auto folder. In, all folders we have some sub-folders created.
Create Folder
- This action is used to create folders in any directory of your choice on your PC. We are creating a folder name Trees in the File-Auto folder.
- Drag and drop the Create folder action into the workspace. Add a Folder path of your directory, in which you want to create a folder. Give a name to the folder and click on Save.
- Save and Run the flow. We have our new folder named Trees successfully created in the File-Auto folder.
Get subfolders in folder
- This action is used to get the sub folder's path from any directory of your choice from the PC. We are getting the path for folders from the File-Auto folder.
- From the Actions panel, drag and drop the Get subfolders in folder action into the workspace. Add a Folder path of your directory, from which you want to get the subfolders. Here, in the Folder filter " * " denotes "including all" this will include all the folder paths present in the given folder. Click on Save.
- Save and Run the flow. From the below image you can see in the Folders variable which has all the paths of the subfolders.
Get files in folder
- This action is used to get the file paths from any folder of your choice. We are getting the path for files from the Demo3 folder.
- From the Actions panel, drag and drop the Get files in folder action into the workspace. Add a Folder path of your directory, from which you want to get the files. Here, in the File filter " * " denotes "including all" this will include all the file paths present in the folder. Click on Save.
- Save and Run the flow. From the flow variables column in the Files variable, we have all the paths of the files.
Empty folder
- This action is used to empty any folder of your choice. This will delete all files and subfolders present in that folder. We are emptying the Mountains folder.
- Drag and drop the Empty folder action into the workspace. Add a Folder to empty path of your folder, from which you want to empty. Click on Save.
- Save and Run the flow. You can see the Mountains folder has been empty now.
Delete Folder
- This action is used to delete any folder of your choice. We are deleting the Trees folder from the File-Auto folder.
- Drag and drop the Delete folder action into the workspace. Add a Folder to delete path of your folder, from which you want to delete. Click on Save.
- Save and Run the flow. We can see the Trees folder has been deleted from the File-Auto folder.
Copy folder
- This action is used to copy any folders of your choice. We are copying the Lakes folder to the Mountains folder. We have subfolders present in the Lakes folder and the Mountains folder is empty.
- Drag and drop the Copy folder action into the workspace. Add the path of your folder to Folder to copy, and add the Destination folder path where you want to paste the copied folder. Click on Save.
- Save and Run the flow. You can see the Lakes folder has been copied from the File-Auto folder to the Mountains folder.
Move folder
- This action is used to move any folders of your choice. We are moving the Beaches folder to the Mountains folder. We have subfolders present in the Beaches folder and the Mountains folder has only one folder.
- Drag and drop the Move folder action into the workspace. Add the path of your folder to Folder to move, and add the Destination folder path where you want to paste the folder. Click on Save.
- Save and Run the flow. We can see the Beaches folder has been moved from the File-Auto folder to the Mountains folder.
Rename folder
- This action is used to rename any folders of your choice. We are renaming the Lakes folder from File-Auto to Rivers.
- Drag and drop the Rename folder action into the workspace. Add the path of your folder to Folder to rename, and add the New folder name which is in this case as Rivers. Click on Save.
- Save and Run the flow. We can see in the File-Auto folder the folder named Lakes has been renamed Rivers.
Get Special Folder
- The Get special folder action retrieves the paths for commonly used directories, it can retrieve paths for Desktop, My Pictures, Internet Cache, etc. In the Special folder name add Desktop and in the Special folder path add the path. Click on Save.
- Save and Run the flow. We can see it has retrieved the paths for the Desktop folder.
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About Author :
I am Sharvari Raut, having sound knowledge and experience in technical writing. Currently, pursuing my B.Tech in Computer Science and Engineering.
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