Auto-save email attachments to Onedrive
What you need: Any PC browser; Android and/or IOS device Time required: 25 minutes
In Issue 490’s ‘What’s All the Fuss About?’ (page 49), we told you about Microsoft Flow – a new website and app that lets you combine apps and services to automate time-consuming, multi-step tasks. In this Workshop, we’ll show you how to use it to
automatically save attachments you receive in Outlook.com to your Onedrive account. Bear in mind, each email attachment you save using Flow equates to one task (or ‘run’) – you are entitled to 750 free runs per month, which should be more than enough.
STEP 1
To use Flow, go to http://flow.microsoft.com, click ‘Sign in’ 1 and log in using your Microsoft (Hotmail or Outlook) account details. Click ‘See how it works’ 2 to watch an introductory video. You can search for all workflow templates (specific sequences of tasks you can apply) relating to a particular service (such as ‘Outlook’) by typing outlook in the search field 3 . You can also select a specific service in the ‘Connect with your favorite services’ section 4 to see all workflow templates relating to it.
STEP2
Alternatively, scroll to the ‘Start with a template’ section at the bottom, then click to select the category you want (Email, Productivity, etc). For our Workshop, select the ‘Saving Attachments from Outlook.com’ template. Search for ‘Onedrive’ or ‘Outlook’ if you don’t see it. Once you’ve found it, click ‘Use this template’, then click ‘Sign in’ 1 beside Outlook.com and enter your login details. Finally, click Yes to let the service access your account. Next, click ‘Sign in’ 2 beside Onedrive and repeat the process. Click Continue 3 after that’s done.
STEP3
For convenience, it’s a good idea to go to www.onedrive.com in a new browser tab, log into your account and create a new folder 1 called ‘Outlook attachments’ 2 (or similar). Now return to the Microsoft Flow website and click the Edit link that appears within the ‘On new email’ field. You can customise which email attachments you save, and which Onedrive folders you send them to. By default, the former field is set to Inbox, meaning all email attachments you receive will be saved to Onedrive.
STEP4
If you want to save email attachments from specific recipients only, click ‘Show advanced options’ 1 then type their email addresses in the From field. Next, click the folder icon at the bottom right of the ‘Folder path’ field 2 , click the right-pointing arrow, then select the Onedrive folder you created in Step 3 3 . Finally, click ‘Create flow’ 4 and you’ll see a message saying ‘Your flow was created’. Click Done at the top right.
STEP5
To check whether your workflow (Microsoft calls this ‘flow’, hence the name) is working, send an attachment to your Outlook email. Next, return to your Onedrive tab and open the attachments folder you created in Step 3. You should see your Outlook attachment in this folder. If you don’t, go back to the Microsoft Flow website ( www.snipca.com/22676), click ‘My flows’ 1 , then check whether it’s turned on 2 . Click the pen icon 3 to edit your flow (follow Step 4 again) or delete any flows you no longer use 4 .
STEP6
You can also manage your flows and create new ones using the free Microsoft Flow Android and IOS apps. We’ll use Android ( www.snipca.com/22677), but the IOS app ( www.snipca.com/22678) works in a similar way. Open the app, tap Skip (to bypass the intro screens), log into your Microsoft account, select United Kingdom from the ‘Select country’ dropdown menu, then click Continue. Tap Activity 1 to see your flows and how many times they have run 2 .
STEP7
To create a new flow, tap Browse 1 , then search for the service you want 2 or scroll down the list to see a choice of workflow templates 3 . Swipe right to see more templates or tap See All 4 . To create a new flow, select a workflow template you want 5 , tap Use This Template, log into the required services for that template (say Onedrive, Dropbox or Google), then tap Create Flow when you’ve finished. ●