Archive SharePoint using Power Automate 🤩 Even the hard columns

[@spen2431]

Amazing..... Bookmarked and will watch again and again. Thanks Shane. 💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥

[@ShanesCows]

Happy to help! Have a great week.

[@PrimalEdge]

GROOVY VIDEO! I run archives for a lot of sites, and one way I gatekeep for accuracy is by adding an approval process. My flow will run at about 5AM, when I log on, I have a pending approval that prompts me to give a quick visual once over at what was archived and make sure all looks 100%. After I Approve the status to that point, it then completes the process by deleting the original item from production. This video was very comprehensive and easy to follow. Always enjoy your content.

[@ShanesCows]

I like the approval step 🥰

[@dougydoe]

Great video Shane! Interestingly, I do run a weekly archiving Flow with almost similar actions as you demoed without the attachment bits so very good to add that to my arsenal. Thanks for sharing. Always appreciated.😎

[@ShanesCows]

Happy to help

[@ArohShukla]

oh my god!! ..This is something I was looking. Thanks so much Shane!! you are just AWESOME

[@ShanesCows]

You are so welcome! Have a great week.

[@anthonyschoester1192]

Great video Shane, this one is next on my todo list, currently working on the document library video to get rid of our attachments, loved that one also btw 👍

[@ShanesCows]

Awesome. I am team no attachments so glad that is helping😍

[@lucindalunstrum9043]

Thanks for the help with the more complex fields & attachments! But seriously, I learned a couple of things that will be helpful overall like the pagination setting on the Get Items and the concurrency setting on the For All.

[@ShanesCows]

Awesomeness, glad it helped. 🤩

[@natebig]

Timing on the release of this is a bit scary. How did you know this is exactly what my team is setting up this week? As always, great content!

[@ShanesCows]

They called me. They were hoping you wouldn't see the video so they looked like geniuses. 🤣 Have a great week!

[@anthonyschoester1192]

This video release is the 2nd scary one for me. 1st was the document library in stead of attachments and now this one 😱

[@GrantCorrin]

Another great video. Thanks Shane

[@ShanesCows]

My pleasure!!

[@GrantCorrin]

I was wondering if there's a way to make sure the comments and @tags associated with each sharepoint item get archived too?

[@elmuhaerte]

Incredible video. Thanks Shane.

[@ShanesCows]

My pleasure!

[@mallelajyothi9819]

Thanks Shane 😊

[@ShanesCows]

Glad that it helped you. :)

[@TheKermit2110]

Loved the way you slow-walked us through what would have seemed a complex flow, bud. Thanks v much. Only question i have is why delete the attachments on the old record if the last step deletes the entire record anyway? Cheers

[@ShanesCows]

Great point 😎 I was just trying to be thorough on the pieces so people could take what they want. But you are correct, you wouldn't really have to.

[@geralddahl9159]

@@ShanesCows Follow up question: If the attachment gets deleted AND then the record gets deleted, is it the case that the deleted record that I am still able to find in the recycle box no longer has it's attachment? (BONUS request: Please consider a Dataverse Timeline Add Note/Attachment video ... huge complexities I'm sure related to matching the 'attachment' back to the record it was associated with within the Dataverse table it got added into.) Thanks for your great content, rest well, Youngs!

[@nikbla6308]

Thank you very much!

[@ShanesCows]

You're welcome!

[@maikelcorrea]

This is awesome information! any chance you could do a video on archiving a list with thumbnail columns?

[@ShanesCows]

The ThumbNail column is a built in column that is autogenerated in doc libraries. If you move the doc, it should generate a new thumbnail. Unless I am missing something.

[@stewartteamworksolutions2889]

Shane - really enjoyed the video. I am wondering why you included the delete attachments action when you are ultimately deleting the list item. Thanks.

[@ShanesCows]

You are the second person to ask. 🤩 Basically I included it so be complete and show all of the mechanics. I find people rarely do exactly what I did and instead are there to learn a piece. So I wanted that piece to be complete. But yeah, if you are deleting the whole thing then you could skip deleting the attachment. Nice catch. 😎

[@jeremys1977]

​@ShanesCows thanks for explaining that. I also was wondering why you were deleting the attachments before deleting the row.

[@JohnnieTech2]

I ran into this recently where I needed to archive/move a list but preserve the created/created by and modified/modified by columns. Would you use a Send an HTTP request to SharePoint like I ended up doing or is there a better way to accomplish that?

[@TheMathizze]

Exactly the same question… I don’t want all records in the archive having my username attached to it

[@ShanesCows]

Yes, you would have to use the API at that point. The other option is to create new Columns called "Original Created By" and "Original Created" etc. Then populate those using the flow method.

[@PaweW-td3wt]

Thanks for the great material! I have a question: is there a daily API call limit with a standard SharePoint license? For large lists, wouldn't a more effective method be to delete and save rows to the list in batches using HTTP requests?

[@ShanesCows]

Yes, if you know how to use HTTP with batches that is going to save you a lot of actions. 🤩 Baby steps here though. That stuff can be pretty scary for a new builder. 😎

[@ed-salinas-97]

This certainly aids in something that I've been thinking about for a sharepoint list I maintain. One question I have, though: what happens if we want to preserve the version history of a list item? For example, I have a list that shows when someone approves an item as well as who approved it. We want to preserve the version history for audits, etc. I don't think moving list items to a new list would do that. Is there another method of archiving that can preserve the version history information?

[@ShanesCows]

Not that I know of. I think you would have to use the API to get the old versions and create them somewhere else. :( Not 100% sure though, I have never tried.

[@jeanpauldosher3076]

Awsome, as usual! Why are people so scared of using complex columns in Power Apps? I really feel that a part of me is taken when we get rid of a lookup column 😭😭

[@ShanesCows]

Complex columns depend on the situation. If you are only using SharePoint as a "Database" then they add extra complexity. If you are using Power Apps to enhance the SharePoint experience, then they have a place. That is how I think about it. 😎

[@chap666ish]

Hi Shane. I'm struggling to understand why you added an action to delete each attachment when the entire list item is going to be deleted anyway. For what it's worth, my own approach to flows that archive list items is NOT to delete each row as it's copied across. I worry that something's going to go awry and items will be deleted when they haven't properly been copied to the archive list. I know that shouldn't happen, but the possibility of losing data keeps me awake at night 😁 So, my approach is to add a column to the source list to act as a flag to indicate the record has been copied. The flow updates the source list item as each item is copied. Then I have a separate flow that (bulk) deletes items from the source list that have the flag set. This approach means I can satisfy myself the copy operation has worked (e.g. it's copied the same number of records to the archive list as have have had flags set in the source list) before running the bulk delete flow. A longer process, but it helps me sleep better at night (and it helps me keep my job!)

[@ShanesCows]

You are the third person to ask. 🤩 Basically, I included it so be complete and show all of the mechanics. I find people rarely do exactly what I did and instead are there to learn a piece. So, I wanted that piece to be complete. But yeah, if you are deleting the whole thing then you could skip deleting the attachment. Nice catch. 😎 I have accidently deleted the wrong data before; I know that awkward pain, so I don't blame you for nothing.

[@ssccservlearn]

Any hitches with Image columns?

[@ShanesCows]

Probably since they are terrible and poorly designed under the hood. 😁 But I haven't actually tried one yet so not sure.

[@GreyDob]

Thanks for the video Shane. I have about 10 flows like this but the difference is, I never Deleted the attachments, because I will delete the complete record anyway at the end ... or am I wrong?

[@ShanesCows]

I agree, the item will be deleted when you delete the item. I was just trying to show as many pieces as I could to help people learn. I should have been more clear about my redundancy. :)

[@cryptofinder2148]

Does this also copy the version history of the item?

[@ShanesCows]

Nope, you would have to get the version history, probably via the API. Sorry

[@AMindGame]

What's the different between Value and Item?

[@ShanesCows]

Sorry, not sure what you are asking. Time stamp maybe so I can get context?

[@i_am_batman_ph]

How do you archive a SharePoint List that already exceeded the "List View Threshold" which max out at 5,000 items?

[@ShanesCows]

I have never tried. Hmmm... Get Items works on lists over the threshold. I did an oData query where Title eq 'Item 25001' and it got it

[@i_am_batman_ph]

@@ShanesCows Many thanks! I got my archiving working. I had a problem with new interface because it was not reflecting the correct parameter whenever I reference to a SharePoint List ID. I was able to make it work with the old interface. I wish they would fix the bugs before implementing the new interface. Thanks again! You are a life saver!

[@jjallen5381]

What if I only have one attachment? It appears it doesn't run if there isn't at least two attachements

[@ShanesCows]

All of my tests other than the video were with only 1 attachment and it worked. :( Not sure why yours wouldn't work with 1.

[@jjallen5381]

@@ShanesCows Got it to work. Thanks!

[@manjunathak4822]

❤❤

[@ShanesCows]

😎

[@ellioto7390]

My get attachment content action doesn’t like the File identifier “Id” - it wants an integer but I can see in the get attachments action it’s providing a string. The file is a .jpeg. Any reason why it would pull a string instead of an integer?

[@edravtv4367]

I have the same issue right now.

[@fsaetre]

As customers run into these scenarios and need to do this, it would cost less over all to just do it properly in Dataverse…. I see customer working hard to not buy those PowerApps licenses and spending more time and effort to maintain the «free»/seeded version from M365.

[@ShanesCows]

I agree, the licensing is usually cheaper than the work arounds if you look at the big picture. 👍

[@dustinrocksvold8650]

@@ShanesCows Try explaining that to leadership when you have 26,000+ employees. They see 26,000 * $20 $520,000 per month (not count Power Automate Premium) and tend to choke on it!

[@AMindGame]

Microsoft need a simple solution to handle multi choice, people and choice..

[@ShanesCows]

That would be nice 😎