How to access user uploaded files in Copilot Studio?

Question

How to access user uploaded files in Copilot Studio?

Frank 105

In Microsoft Copilot Studio, how can I extract and store the text content of a Word or PDF file uploaded by an end user via the chat UI (using the attachment icon) into a variable for further processing?

For example, I want to:

Extract the file's text and store it in a variable.
Use this text in a workflow to send it to a private GPT instance with a custom prompt to generate a structured summary.

This question is not related to the "Add Content" feature for knowledge file uploads but focuses on handling files uploaded during live chat interactions.

Any guidance or documentation would be greatly appreciated!

Rajeeva, Sudarshan 0 Reputation points

2025-01-24T06:01:09.8666667+00:00

I'm also having same problem :(. i tried to use system.activity.attachment but it is only giving reference id not the actual file content. I'm thinking we must look into some dataverse table with that id.
Doug Maloney 25 Reputation points

2025-02-13T00:26:20.7166667+00:00
I can retrieve the content of the attachment but it's a "file" object which I guess is a blob. Can't figure out how to pass this blob to Power Automate. Any ideas?

First(System.Activity.Attachments).Value
Doug Maloney 25 Reputation points

2025-02-13T00:28:07.52+00:00
I can retrieve the content of the attachment and store it in a variable in CPS as follows - but can't then pass on this File object (which is a blob I think) to Power Automate

First(System.Activity.Attachments).Value
Siedler, Christian 0 Reputation points

2025-02-19T15:13:46.2+00:00

Hi Doug,
did you already find a way passing it through?
Johannes Indbjo 25 Reputation points

2025-02-25T14:40:00.4866667+00:00

The Dataverse table that contains the ConversationFileReference to the file is ConversationTranscripts. It is stored in the Content column as a very long JSON-string if you want to dig around for it.

4 answers

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Rajeeva, Sudarshan 0 Reputation points

2025-01-24T06:01:09.8666667+00:00

I'm also having same problem :(. i tried to use system.activity.attachment but it is only giving reference id not the actual file content. I'm thinking we must look into some dataverse table with that id.
Doug Maloney 25 Reputation points

2025-02-13T00:26:20.7166667+00:00

I can retrieve the content of the attachment but it's a "file" object which I guess is a blob. Can't figure out how to pass this blob to Power Automate. Any ideas?

First(System.Activity.Attachments).Value
Doug Maloney 25 Reputation points

2025-02-13T00:28:07.52+00:00

I can retrieve the content of the attachment and store it in a variable in CPS as follows - but can't then pass on this File object (which is a blob I think) to Power Automate

First(System.Activity.Attachments).Value
Siedler, Christian 0 Reputation points

2025-02-19T15:13:46.2+00:00

Hi Doug,
did you already find a way passing it through?
Johannes Indbjo 25 Reputation points

2025-02-25T14:40:00.4866667+00:00

The Dataverse table that contains the ConversationFileReference to the file is ConversationTranscripts. It is stored in the Content column as a very long JSON-string if you want to dig around for it.

Answer 1

Johannes Indbjo 25

Hi! I might have a solution, that worked for me.

The variable System.Activity.ChannelData is what solved it for me. It contains an object called OriginalAttachment that either stores the Base64-file content or an URL to download (if the file is stored in Onedrive).

Steps to capture channelData

Use a trigger to start the topic, for example that the Activity.Attachments table is not empty.
Set a variable (e.g. attachment_data) to JSON(System.Activity.ChannelData). This variable will become a string. This should happen before any other messages are sent.
Pass the variable to Power Automate.
Parse the variable to a JSON schema with "Analyze Json".
Work with the file content as desired. For example, you can convert the base64-encoded data from contentUrl to binary with base64toBinary in a "Compose". Some connectors need a base64-encoded string anyway. For example, extracting text from a document with AIBuilder to send it to a GPT uses base64-encoded string for the document.

Otherwise, uploading the file with a Onedrive Connector and First(System.Activity.Attachments).Value and downloading it from Power Automate with the file ID is possible. If you need the filename, it should be in the channelData

Hope this helps!

Doug Maloney 25 Reputation points

2025-02-25T23:20:10.4633333+00:00

Legend! Thanks so much

However, if the file is big CPS fails as the string is too long. "'Maximum length reached in JSON function.'. Error Code: ContentValidationError". Any thoughts?
Johannes Indbjo 25 Reputation points

2025-02-26T07:46:50.4733333+00:00

I guess uploading it to Onedrive and downloading in Power Automate would work. However, I struggled to access the filename without parsing channelData. You could name the file temp or something similar, which works for some connectors in PowerAutomate (e.g. reading a pdf with AIBuilder). I suppose an ugly workaround could be to ask the user to name the file before uploading.
Michael Loves Copilot 5 Reputation points Microsoft Employee

2025-02-26T10:34:08.26+00:00

Happy to get the same findings here. :-) My test is the upload file should be not larger than 1MB.
Siddhartha Sunil Prabhu 0 Reputation points

2025-03-04T10:45:16.02+00:00

Hi, I am stuck in a same but different situation, instead of a file I am trying to let the users upload an Image and I want to dump that image to a SharePoint list, but for some reason I can't extract the image, can anyone suggest how I can extract it, also cant find any variable operation as "Analyze Json".
Mohammad Umar Siddiqui 0 Reputation points

2025-03-07T07:15:30.9633333+00:00

Can u tell the schema for parsing the JSON(System.Activity.ChannelData) as I am stuck at this place.

Mohammad Umar Siddiqui 0

JSON(System.Activity.ChannelData) =

{"attachmentSizes":[{"Value":135282}],"clientActivityID":"smu88qoekng","enableDiagnostics":true,"testMode":"Text"}

After parsing I am just getting these value.

{
  "attachmentSizes": [
    {
      "Value": 135282
    }
  ],
  "clientActivityID": "smu88qoekng",
  "enableDiagnostics": true,
  "testMode": "Text"
}

The schema for parsing was

{
  "type": "object",
  "properties": {
    "OriginalAttachment": {
      "type": "object",
      "properties": {
        "contentType": {
          "type": "string"
        },
        "name": {
          "type": "string"
        },
        "contentUrl": {
          "type": "string"
        },
        "content": {
          "type": "string"
        }
      }
    }
  }
}

So I am stuck here as I am not able get file content.

Johannes Indbjo 25

Here is an example when uploading a file called Hello world.txt and calling JSON(System.Activity.Attachments in Copilot Studio.

{"OriginalAttachments":[{"contentType":"text/plain","contentUrl":"data:text/plain;base64,SGVsbG8gd29ybGQ=","name":"Hello world.txt"}],"attachmentSizes":[{"Value":11}],"clientActivityID":"2disicd7krz","enableDiagnostics":true,"testMode":"Text"}

Mcasolaro 25 Reputation points

2025-03-13T16:51:55.4133333+00:00

@doug malon Look at my response, I have solved the problem.
Mcasolaro 25 Reputation points

2025-03-13T16:58:28.6066667+00:00

@Siddhartha Sunil Prabhu To retrieve files and upload them elsewhere, use the topic "question" with response type "file." Save everything in a variable and use the OneDrive connector to save the file. Finally, use my last solution (posted here) to retrieve the file name and extension.
Siedler, Christian 0 Reputation points

2025-03-14T07:32:34.1333333+00:00

cool, thanks! works perfect!
Mahi 0 Reputation points

2025-05-16T18:23:04.9933333+00:00

Could you please share your whole topic in here? I feel like I am missing some steps in my topic.

Answer 2

Mcasolaro 25

Hello everyone,

To upload files (as already mentioned by other users), just use the OneDrive connector:
use the topic "question" with response type "file." Save everything in a variable and use the OneDrive connector to save the file. User's image

But the problem remains with retrieving the file name and extension.

By trying to use the solution proposed by another user, you can make a JSON of "System.Activity.ChannelData" and retrieve the file name and content, but there is a 1 MB limit, or CPS gives an error.

After a thousand attempts, I managed to find a solution and retrieve the file name and its extension:

User's image

Simply set a variable in CPS and use this function:

JSON(First(System.Activity.ChannelData.OriginalAttachments).name)

You can also use "Text()" for direct text

Text(First(System.Activity.ChannelData.OriginalAttachments).name)

don't worry if the fields are not suggested, just fill it out exactly as written.

User's image

Gustavo Ceolin Silva Veloso 0 Reputation points

2025-04-22T17:08:02.2066667+00:00

Nice man, the second formula is exact why i needed some weeks ago, and created a solution that get the full string from channeldata, pass it to a record and in another variable get the "name".

Worst thing is, i've come in this link a lot of times, and didnt saw your post. Coud saved me a lot of time if i wasnt so inattentive
Nathan 10 Reputation points

2025-05-12T09:01:45.6333333+00:00

Hello, I was wondering if you knew how it's possible to simply upload a file with the chatbot because when I access the chat from the “demo site” or “web application”, I can't even upload a file.
Mahi 0 Reputation points

2025-05-16T18:26:48.5166667+00:00

@Mcasolaro could you please share your topic here? i feel like im missing some teps in my topic. plese find attached my images.

Answer 3

Doug Maloney 25

Thanks to my colleague Chris who figured this out.

Trying to pass a file object directly to a Power Automate flow is a non-starter. You can pass it to a Sharepoint connector directly from Copilotstudio to create a new file - the connector does accept a file object and can create the file.

Mcasolaro 25 Reputation points

2025-03-13T16:48:27.0366667+00:00

Look at my response, I have solved the problem.
Doug Maloney 25 Reputation points

2025-03-13T21:53:31.5066667+00:00

yes, effectively the same solution but we used sharepoint connector not onedrive. The trick is to not attempt to use a custom power automate flow.
Michael Loves Copilot 5 Reputation points Microsoft Employee

2025-03-19T09:39:31.95+00:00

the file size 1MB limit is only for test windows in copilot studio, but as far as I tested, it can be bigger.
TriTran 0 Reputation points

2025-04-17T10:53:53.2366667+00:00

If user upload more than 1 file. How to solve it?

Answer 4

Matteo Cacciola 0

Perhaps, this video could help https://www.reddit.com/r/copilotstudio/comments/1k32jm4/create_copilot_studio_agents_that_can_read_file/

DAVID ARTURO PEREZ DIAZ 0 Reputation points

2025-07-01T15:35:05.62+00:00

It did, thks

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How to access user uploaded files in Copilot Studio?

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