Power Automate Desktop – Create File intermittently fails with NotFound

Question

Hi recently Iam facing this issue .

Create File intermittently fails with a NotFound error on a VM.

1. The expected file is not created, although the same flow/path works at other times.
2. Removing and re-adding the Create File action temporarily fixes the issue.
3. Please investigate whether this is a Power Automate Desktop product bug.

Answer 1

Hello Abinashini,

The “Create File” action in Power Automate Desktop throwing a NotFound error intermittently is not a typical product bug but usually points to environmental conditions on the VM. The error occurs when the target path cannot be resolved at the moment the action executes. Even if the path looks valid, transient issues such as delayed network drive availability, temporary permission denials, or session context changes can cause the action to fail. That explains why re‑adding the action works briefly-it forces a refresh of the cached path reference, but the underlying condition remains.

On VMs, this is most often tied to either redirected folders or mapped drives that are not consistently available. If you are writing to a network share, confirm that the drive is mounted and accessible at runtime. If you are writing to a local path, check whether the folder exists at the exact moment the flow runs. A good practice is to precede the Create File action with “Check if Folder Exists” and “Create Folder” if missing, so the action never attempts to write into a non‑existent directory. Also verify that the account running PAD has write permissions on the folder; intermittent failures can occur if the VM session changes user context or if UAC policies interfere.

If you are certain the path is valid and permissions are stable, then this may be a timing issue. Adding a short delay before the Create File action sometimes stabilizes execution on VMs where disk or network resources are slow to initialize. Microsoft has not documented a product bug for this specific action, so the recommended approach is to validate folder existence, permissions, and timing. If after these checks the issue persists, it would be worth opening a support ticket with Microsoft to capture logs from %LOCALAPPDATA%\Microsoft\Power Automate Desktop\Logs at the time of failure. That will confirm whether the error is environmental or a defect in the action itself.

I hope you've found something useful here. If it helps you get more insight into the issue, it's appreciated to accept the answer. Should you have more questions, feel free to leave a message. Have a nice day!HP.

Answer 2

Based on the described behavior alone, this is not enough to classify it as a Power Automate Desktop product bug.

The documented guidance is to distinguish a flow-specific issue from a platform bug:

• If the problem happens only in one specific flow, only on one VM, or only with a particular path, file, connector, or environment, it points to a flow/environment issue.
• If the same failure can be reproduced in a new, minimal flow that contains only the essential file-creation steps, and it occurs consistently across comparable scenarios, that is stronger evidence of a Power Automate bug.

In this case, the facts provided suggest a flow or environment issue more than a confirmed product defect because:

1. The failure is intermittent.
2. It occurs on a VM rather than being shown across multiple environments.
3. The same flow/path works at other times.
4. Re-adding the action temporarily changes behavior, but that alone does not prove a platform bug.

A practical way to investigate is:

1. Create a new, simple desktop flow that only creates a file in the same target folder.
2. Run it repeatedly on the same VM.
3. Then run the same minimal test against another folder if possible.
4. Compare whether the NotFound error is tied to:
   • one specific flow
   • one specific path
   • one specific VM/environment
   • or any simple file-creation scenario

If the error can be reproduced in a minimal flow using standard actions and without unusual configuration, that supports treating it as a potential product bug. If it only happens in the original flow or only under a specific path/context, it aligns with a flow-specific issue.

If the target file or folder may not always be present at runtime, Power Automate for desktop includes file-check actions such as If file exists and Wait for file, which can help verify the path state before the create step runs.

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References:

• Create an effective Power Automate support request
• File actions