Send Outlook Email with Attachments using Power Automate Desktop

Recently, while working on a Power Automate Desktop project, we were required to send a Project Details Excel file as an attachment in Outlook to one of our clients using Power Automate Desktop.

But here the Excel file is stored locally on the desktop. To do this, we can create a flow in the Power Automate desktop app.

In this tutorial, I will explain how to send an Outlook email with an attachment using Power Automate Desktop. Additionally, I will cover how to send multiple email attachments using Power Automate Desktop.

Send Outlook Email with Attachment in Power Automate Desktop

Now, let’s see how to send an email with an attachment using Power Automate desktop.

Let’s assume you have a file named ‘Project Details‘ on your local desktop, and you want to send an email with that file as an attachment.

Follow the steps below to do so.

1. On the Power Automate desktop app, create a flow. If you are a beginner, check out how to create a flow in Power Automate Desktop.
2. Under the Actions pane, search for Outlook. Then, drag and drop the ‘Launch Outlook‘ action to the canvas. It will open the Outlook app and create an instance variable from it.

3. To store the file path, add a ‘Set variable‘ action. Here, I have renamed the variable name to ‘ProjectFile’, and in the ‘Value’ parameter, provide the ‘File path’.

4. After that, drag and drop the ‘Send email message through Outlook’ action to the workspace. Configure all the required parameters as listed below.
   • Outlook instance: By default, the OutlookInstance variable will be added.
   • Account: Provide the Account Name from which you are sending.
   • Send email message from: Here, I have selected the ‘Other mailbox‘ option because my Outlook has logged in with different accounts. If you have one account, you can choose the “Account” option.
   • Send from: Provide the Account address from which you want to send an email.
   • To: Enter the recipient’s Outlook address.
   • Body: Insert the code provided below.
   • Attachment: Click on {x} -> Select the variable from the set variable action.

Then, click on the Save button.

5. In the last step, add a “Close Outlook” action that will close the Outlook tab opened on the desktop.

Now, the flow is ready. Click “Save” and then run the flow.

6. When the flow executes successfully, you can see that the recipient has received the email with the attachment. Reference the image below:

This is how to send an Outlook email with an attachment using Power Automate Desktop.

Check out Power Automate Create List Data Type Variable

Send Multiple Email Attachments using Power Automate Desktop

Let’s see how to send an email with multiple attachments using Power Automate Desktop.

Suppose, let’s consider that you have two Excel files, like ‘Sales Data‘ and ‘Sales Profit or Loss‘ file, stored on your local desktop, where you want to send these two files as attachments in an Outlook email.

To achieve this, follow the steps below:

1. On the first step, add the ‘Launch Outlook‘ action that will open the Outlook app on your desktop.
2. Now, add two ‘Set variables‘ actions that will store the file path of files present on the desktop. Take a look at the image below and the variables produced from each set of variables.

3. To send multiple attachments, make a list of files retrieved from the previous steps. To do this, drag and drop the “Create new list” action into the workspace.
   • Here, I have renamed the Variables produced to ‘FileList‘.

Then, click on the Save button.

4. In the next step, add file paths to the created list. Select the ‘Add item to list‘ action and set the parameters below.
   • Add item: Select the set variable where the file path is stored [SalesData variable].
   • Into list: Click on {x} -> Select List variable.

5. In the same way, add another file to the List variable by adding one more ‘Add item to list‘ action. Here, I’m appending the %SalesProfitLoss% variable to the list.

6. Now, drag and drop the ‘Send email message through Outlook‘ action. Configure the parameters shown in the example above, except for the Attachment(s).
   • Attachment(s): Click on {x} -> Select list variable. In my case, it is the FileList variable.

7. Then, close Outlook on your desktop by adding the ‘Close Outlook‘ action.

That’s it. Now, you can save and run the flow. Once the flow executes, you can see the recipient’s email with multiple attachments. Refer to the screenshot below.

This is how you can send an email with attachments using Power Automate desktop.

In this tutorial, I explained how to send an Outlook email with single and multiple attachments using Power Automate desktop. Do let me know in the comments below if this tutorial helps.

Other Power Automate Desktop Tutorials You Can Read:

• Add Excel Table into HTML Email Body PAD
• Schedule Power Automate Desktop Flows
• Get Substring from String in Power Automate Desktop
• Insert Row into Data Table in Power Automate Desktop

Bijay Kumar

After working for more than 18 years in Microsoft technologies like SharePoint, Microsoft 365, and Power Platform (Power Apps, Power Automate, and Power BI), I thought will share my SharePoint expertise knowledge with the world. Our audiences are from the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, etc. For my expertise knowledge and SharePoint tutorials, Microsoft has been awarded a Microsoft SharePoint MVP (12 times). I have also worked in companies like HP, TCS, KPIT, etc.