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Add multiple attachments to an approval email with Power Automate

by 36 Comments

Adding multiple attachments to an approval flow in Power Automate is a common requirement. The method is slightly different between the Create an Approval action and the Send an email(V2) action. I will demonstrate both methods in one flow, using a SharePoint list as an example:

First, create the trigger action and initialize two array variables. There are separate arrays for the email action and the approval action:

Image showing first steps of a flow in Power Automate.

Next, use the Get attachments action and provide the same site and list address as before. Use the ID from the trigger action.

Image of Get attachment action in Microsoft Power Automate to pull attachments from a SharePoint list.

Now use the Get attachment Content action and again supply the site and list name. For the ID field use the ID from When an Item is created. Finally, for the File identifier, use the Id from the Get attachments step:

Image of "Get attachment content" action in Power Automate.

This action will now change to be inside an Apply to Each action.

Fill the arrays with the attachment content

The next step is to populate the arrays with the contents of the attachments. Use the append to Append to array variable action. Here is how to build the approvals attachment array.

Image of Power Automate array containing multiple attachments for use in an approval flow.

The code for the approval attachment array is:

{
  "content": {
    "$content-type": "@{body('Get_attachment_content')['$content-type']}",
    "$content": "@{body('Get_attachment_content')['$content']}"
  },
  "Name": "@{items('Build_Attachment_array')?['DisplayName']}"
}

Now populate the email attachment array:

Image of Power Automate array containing multiple email attachments.

The code for the email attachment array is:

{
  "ContentBytes": {
    "$content-type": "@{body('Get_attachment_content')['$content-type']}",
    "$content": "@{body('Get_attachment_content')['$content']}"
  },
  "Name": "@{items('Build_attachment_array')?['DisplayName']}"
}

Notice how the required code is slightly different on line two.

Use the arrays as the attachment content

Now you can simply insert these arrays into the “Create an Approval” or “Send an email(V2)” actions.

Image of an approval flow having multiple attachments added

Here is an image of my entire flow that shows how to send multiple attachments in approvals in a flow from a SharePoint list (click to expand).

Image of a Power Automate Flow showing how to add multiple attachments to an approval

Corrupt attachments

Slightly different solutions to this problem have been discussed in the Power Automate forums but for me, they resulted in corrupted attachments. Adding the correct content type for each of the file attachments fixes the corruption.

I also found that sometimes the file size would increase dramatically.

I’d like to understand why the different array format works for some people and generates corrupt attachments for others.

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Jenna R. says

    I’ve been struggling for weeks to get SP list item attachments to successfully attach to a power automate approvals flow email notification. I kept creeping closer and closer via other blog posts and forum threads, but still ran into the corrupted file issue. This post was the final piece of the puzzle by adding the content-type component to the appended array. THANK YOU — my entire household celebrated with me (I think my vocal frustrations had been bleeding into others’ work and learn from home experiences). Thanks again!

  2. Paulie says

    Thanks for your comment – appreciated as I also spent a long time figuring this out (even though the solution is quite simple) and got very frustrated to the point of almost giving up. Other solutions I’ve seen were on the right scent but didn’t provide a working solution.

  3. Harry Teguh says

    Wow! Your solution works great! I’ve been tearing up my hair for days just to solve this issue. Thank you!

  6. Gillian Eastwood says

    I followed your instructions to a tee….. and I am getting “Flow save failed with code ‘InvalidTemplate’ and message ‘The template validation failed: ‘The reprtition actions(s) ‘Build_attachment_array referenced by ‘inputs’ in action ‘Append to array variable’ are not defined in the template”.

    I have literally spend probably 40 hours trying to figure this out….so any help would be GREALT appreciated 🙂

  9. Premalatha says

    Got resolved finally after spending around 40 hours in dealing with corrupted attachments—

    Now. Append Array code looks like :

    {
    “inputs”: {
    “name”: “AttachmentArray”,
    “value”: {
    “name”: “@items(‘Apply_to_each’)?[‘DisplayName’]”,
    “content”: “@body(‘Get_attachment_content’)?[‘body’]”
    }
    }
    }

  10. Chris says

    I followed this exactly for approvals and the attachment arrives with the approval but it is corrupt and can’t be opened. Same as every other method.

  11. Paulie says

    Chris, would love to do a quick remote session with you to have a look at why it’s not working for you. Let me know if you’re up for it

  12. Chris says

    I’m the same “Chris” from December 22nd – Not sure what I screwed up the first time around but I can confirm that this does work for approvals (I spent almost 8 hours trying to figure this out before finding this blog). What I think I was doing wrong, when I thought this didn’t work, was saving and “Testing” it using old Flow runs over and over and each would fail. When I tried adding a new item to my SharePoint test list, it worked.

  14. Farhaan says

    This has been a great help – Thank you Paulie! – Can i add one more complexity? What if i wanted to build a name for each file in the array?

    e.g.

    for each file
    – uses the InvoiceNo. field from the list
    – uses the vendorname field from the list
    – adds a _n at the end of the file – starting with 1 for the first file

    e.g. of file name built

    5555_XYZ_1
    5555_XYZ_2

    would i have have to append the file extension at the end of the built file name?

    any help is appreciated!

    Thanks

  15. Bron says

    I am stuck on the same approval error as Gillian.

    Gillian Eastwood says

    December 4, 2020 at 6:05 am

    I followed your instructions to a tee….. and I am getting “Flow save failed with code ‘InvalidTemplate’ and message ‘The template validation failed: ‘The reprtition actions(s) ‘Build_attachment_array referenced by ‘inputs’ in action ‘Append to array variable’ are not defined in the template”.

    I tried this (below) but i am getting an invalid JSON error. Can anyone help?

    {
    “inputs”: {
    “name”: “AttachmentArray”,
    “value”: {
    “name”: “@items(‘Apply_to_each’)?[‘DisplayName’]”,
    “content”: “@body(‘Get_attachment_content’)?[‘body’]”
    }
    }
    }

  16. Paulie says

    I believe it is because you are using @items(‘Apply_to_each’) when the each loop I created was called Build Attachment array, which would mean your code would need to be @items(‘Build_Attachment_array’)

  18. yannis belouris says

    thanks for the tip! Suddenly I started getting problems. I only changed the Build_Attachment_array to my apply_to_each loop.

    {
    “content”: {
    “$content-type”: “@{body(‘Get_attachment_content’)[‘$content-type’]}”,
    “$content”: “@{body(‘Get_attachment_content’)[‘$content’]}”
    },
    “Name”: “@{items(‘Build_Attachment_array’)?[‘DisplayName’]}”
    }

  19. David McMurtry says

    Thanks so much! I have burned so much time with this issue until I found this post.

  20. Antonio Barros says

    My Man, you are a star !!!!!!!!! I was struggling with that for 2 days in a raw, I read so many articles that got to a point I was even correcting how badly other bloggers, stckflow and youtubers,etc.. wrote the content type or content syntex. Thank you so very much, you are a star.

  21. Manuel says

    HI, thank you very much for this solution.
    I’m struggling, however, because attachments doesn’t show up in TEAMS APPROVALS app (it works ok with power automate, actions, approvals)… do you know how can I have the attachments available in the approval request in TEAMS app?
    Thanks in advance!
    Manuel Moreno

  22. jaina says

    hi tried this, but when I run the flow with multiple attachments, the number of attachments is same number approval notification i received.

    i followed step by step and successfully run the flow but the expectation is that 1 approval notification only with multiple attached files..

  23. jaina says

    Ohhhh looks like it worked already!!!

    I just created new item with multiple attachments to capture the new update in my workflow via PowerAutomate

  25. jaina says

    I just tried again, I tried to attached 2 sample files, and when the flow runs, approval routes 3 times? First approval has 1 attachments, same with the second approval email, and the last has 2 attachments???

    Can you help why? I haven’t encountered error in my flows.

  28. Omolola Alfred says

    Hello @Paulie I tried using the approval attachment array code but I keep getting
    Flow save failed with code ‘InvalidTemplate’ and message ‘The template validation failed: ‘The repetition action(s) ‘Build_Attachment_array’ referenced by ‘inputs’ in action ‘Append_to_array_variable’ are not defined in the template.’.’.

    please Help

  29. Omolola Alfred says

    hello @ paulie, yannis belouris and everyone! i have solve this error, i am so excited, i have been trying to add attachment to approval for so long.
    This is how I solved it

    {
    “content”: {
    “$content-type”: “@{body(‘Get_attachment_content’)[‘$content-type’]}”,
    “$content”: “@{body(‘Get_attachment_content’)[‘$content’]}”
    },
    “Name”: “@{items(‘Apply_to_each’)?[‘DisplayName’]}””
    }

  32. ImkeF says

    Just a quick heads if it’s not working for you with this method: Your flow might be corrupt.
    At least this was the case for me. After hours of searching and trial and error I just set up a new flow, rebuilt everything from my previous flow and then it worked with this method.

  33. tonia says

    Any idea why it would work most of the time, but for some users, even though they have attachments saved on the list and there are no flow errors, the approval emails arrive with no attachments?

  34. Tonie says

    Hi, my Attachment Array throws the following error when I populate the value field as you suggest:
    The template validation failed: ‘The repetition action(s) ‘Build_Attachment_array’ referenced by ‘inputs’ in action ‘Append_to_Approval_Attachment_Array’ are not defined in the template.’.
    Thanks.

  35. Tonie says

    To my earlier question . . . it is that the Apply to each are not shown in the article so one cannot see that they are named Build Attachment Array. Mine are named Apply to each. So just make sure you use the actual name of your apply to each container, whatever that is.

  36. Irfan Nasruddin says

    Hello everyone, I managed to solve the “Invalid Template” error message that appears when you try to save the flow.

    You just need to move your “Append to array variables” actions into your “Apply to each” action. You should be able to save your flow once you have done this.

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