Power Platform Community Forum Thread Details

Hello everyone,

You can call me Kurnia.

I'm still a beginner with Power Automate, and recently I was assigned a project to build a cloud flow. The main purpose of this flow is to generate JSON files.

To create the JSON files, I'm using the File System connector, which is connected to an on-premises server through the On-premises Data Gateway.

Recently, I've been facing an intermittent issue during the file creation process.

When I check the Run History, the Create file action always returns Success (HTTP 200). However, when my colleague checks the server logs, there are times when the file was never actually created on the server.

To investigate the issue, I made several changes to my flow:

I asked the server team to create a Temporary folder to use as a checkpoint.
Instead of creating the file directly in the processing folder, I first create it in the Temporary folder.
I added the Get file content using path action to verify that the file actually exists.
If Get file content using path succeeds, I use the Copy file action to copy the file from the Temporary folder to the Process folder. I intentionally keep the original file in the Temporary folder for troubleshooting purposes.
I also added a Send email action to notify the team whether the file creation process succeeded or failed. The email body includes the file name and the target directory so we can easily identify which file was processed and where it was expected to be created.

After implementing these changes, I observed the following results:

Flow succeeded, the file was created, and the data was processed successfully. (Expected behavior)
Flow failed, and the file was not created. (Expected behavior)
Flow succeeded, but the file was not created on the server. Every action in the flow shows a green check mark, and the success notification email is also sent with the expected file name and directory.
Flow failed. The Create file action returned Success (200), but Get file content using path failed because the file could not be found.

Environment

Power Automate Cloud Flow
File System connector
On-premises Data Gateway version: 3000.294.7
The File System connector is configured to access a local drive on the server (not a network share).
Unfortunately, I don't have direct access to the server. I only have FTP access, so I cannot verify the Windows Event Logs or other server-side logs myself.
I believe the server is running Windows Server 2019, but I cannot confirm the exact version.

Based on these tests, I suspect there may be an intermittent issue between the File System connector and the On-premises Data Gateway, or possibly on the server side. However, I'm not sure where I should begin troubleshooting.

Has anyone experienced a similar issue?

Specifically, I would like to know:

Is it possible for the Create file action to return HTTP 200 even though the file was never created?
Are there any known issues with the File System connector or On-premises Data Gateway that could cause this behavior?
What logs or diagnostics would you recommend checking first?

Any suggestions or troubleshooting advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you!

Categories:

Using flows

Power Automate Desktop

Using connectors

Power Automate Mobile App

@NK-24071020-0

Hi Kurnia,

Quick answer to your first question: yes, Create file can return 200 with no durable file on disk. The 200 only means the gateway accepted the write, not that the file persisted or landed where you're looking. So #3 and #4 aren't contradictions; something is removing the file post-write or writing it somewhere you can't see. Treat 200 as "submitted," not "done."

Two suspects, in order:

Antivirus/endpoint protection, real-time scanners quarantine small JSON files microseconds after write, after the gateway already returned success. Ask the server team to exclude the gateway process and the target folder, then watch if it stops. This is my top bet.
Concurrency , if runs overlap on the same path, the connector reports phantom success. Set trigger Concurrency Control to 1.

Decouple the flows , it's the right call:

Flow 1: generate JSON → SharePoint Create file (no gateway, always reliable).

Flow 2: trigger on that file → File System Create → read back from the final folder → only then stamp a Delivered = Yes column. Anything still "No" is your re-drive queue.

This won't stop the loss, but it turns silent loss into a visible, retriable failure and never loses the generated content. The read-back is what makes it safe, not the split by itself.

If you can get the server team involved, the cleanest fix is to take the gateway out entirely: a scheduled PowerShell/PnP job (or PAD on the server) that pulls new files from the library. But check AV first, none of that helps if the scanner is the one deleting the file.

Connector limitations for reference: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/connectors/filesystem/ (note the documented trigger lag, same reason a Get right after Create can miss a file that exists).

My money's on AV + concurrency. Fix those two first.