Karin Skapski (Alumni)
If you’ve set up a Microsoft Power Automate Flow and the action you’re using to send an email is not working, keep on reading – you might find the fix here.
Potential causes for Power Automate Flow email issues
The email address might need a semicolon or comma directly after it
Yes, for real.
Flow asks for email addresses, separated by semicolons or commas.
When you type in someone’s name and pick someone’s email from the autofill, it adds a semicolon after it automatically.
I’ve seen cases where the original email that was autofilled was replaced by a new email address that was just typed in, and then all of a sudden emails wouldn’t send anymore.
The fix was simply to add a semicolon directly after that email address.
Note that this happens sporadically and I can’t tell you when or why. I can’t even replicate this now. Just trust me – this tip fixed a client’s Flow issue last week.
There’s a space before or after the email address
If you copied and pasted an email address into Power Automate Flow, there’s a chance you could have grabbed an extra space before or after it.
That seemingly innocuous little space could be causing a syntax error, because Flow isn’t smart enough (yet) to remove it.
Plus, it’s not something that’s easily caught when you’re skimming for errors.
You’re using an email alias
Microsoft’s documentation is kinda vague in how they word it, but Power Automate Flow connectors like the Mail Connection Provider don’t support email aliases.
So, make sure you’re using an actual email address, not an alias, if your email is not working in Power Automate Flow.
The email should match exactly. Some organizations allow names ([email protected]) as well as alias ([email protected]). Be sure to use the correct email in the above form.
Known Issues and Limitations for the Mail Connection Provider – Microsoft Docs
(Couldn’t they just say “email aliases are not supported”?)
You’re using a group email to send emails to group members
Right now, you can’t directly send an email to group members in Power Automate Flow.
If you want to send email to all members of a group, you’ll need to first list all the group members using the Office 365 Groups connector and then apply the output (i.e. the email addresses it lists from your group) to the action you’re using to send an email.
Need support with your automation work?
Here at Regroove, we’ve talked about automating your Microsoft Teams creation process and other reasons why your company needs custom development.
But if your company has someone like you who does those things for them already, we’d rather complement you than compete with you. Our cloud coaching services include technical coaching; we’re often working alongside technical staff to support their work and teach them tips, tricks, and other skills that they can use going forward.
So let’s chat about your next Power Automate Flow project!