SharePoint to SFTP Sync: How To Automate File Uploads

What this SharePoint to SFTP guide covers

This guide covers the outbound half of our three-part SharePoint and SFTP integration series. Before you build it, use How to Connect Power Automate to SFTP for SharePoint Workflows to create and test the shared SFTP-SSH connection. If you’re building the reverse workflow, where files uploaded over SFTP are copied into SharePoint, use SFTP to SharePoint sync.

This guide focuses on one job, sending new files from a selected SharePoint folder to an SFTP To Go folder with Power Automate. We’ll build the complete outbound flow, from preparing the folders and connections to mapping the file name and content, testing the transfer, and fixing common failures.

The finished flow has four stages, SharePoint detects a new file and returns its properties; Get file content retrieves the file body; the SFTP-SSH connection identifies the SFTP To Go destination; and Create file writes the file to the selected SFTP folder with its original name and content.

Use this workflow when your team prepares, reviews, or approves files in SharePoint, but a partner, vendor, customer, or receiving system collects them from SFTP To Go.

Common outbound uses include:

• publishing approved finance reports from SharePoint for collection by a partner system
• sending operations files to a vendor after internal review
• moving approved healthcare documents to an external partner over SFTP
• delivering selected school or administrative records to another system
• releasing final client documents from a SharePoint workspace into a controlled SFTP folder.

When someone adds a new file to the selected SharePoint folder, Power Automate reads its properties, retrieves the complete content, and writes a copy to SFTP To Go. For more insight, check out secure file transfer automation for regulated workflows.

This workflow only processes newly created files in the selected SharePoint folder. It isn’t a full two-way mirror, so it won’t automatically handle renames, deletions, conflict rules, or an initial backfill of existing files. By the end of the guide, you’ll have a tested outbound flow and a clear way to check trigger, connection, file-mapping, path, and file-size problems.

How the SharePoint and SFTP setup fits together

SharePoint works well as an internal workspace for reports, records, client documents, exports, and other business files. Sometimes, though, a partner or external system needs to reach those files through SFTP. In that case, Power Automate can move approved files from SharePoint to a separate file-transfer endpoint.

Each service has a clear role:

• SharePoint stores the files your internal team reviews, approves, organizes, or processes.
• SFTP To Go provides the SFTP endpoint, credentials, folders, and storage used for external file exchange.
• Power Automate runs the workflow and passes the file name, path, and content between the two systems.

This guide covers the SharePoint-to-SFTP workflow. A SharePoint file-created trigger starts the flow, Power Automate retrieves the file content, and the SFTP-SSH connector creates the file in SFTP To Go.

The shared Power Automate-to-SFTP connection is covered in How to Connect Power Automate to SFTP. This guide focuses on the SharePoint trigger, file-content retrieval, folder mapping, upload, testing, and troubleshooting. For the reverse workflow, see SFTP to SharePoint Sync.

Preparation and setup

Before you open the flow designer, confirm the Power Automate connections, source folder, destination folder, permissions, and test conditions for this outbound path.

Confirm the Power Automate connections to SharePoint and SFTP To Go

Complete the shared SFTP connection setup in How to Connect Power Automate to SFTP for SharePoint Workflows before you build this flow. The connection test should successfully list the folders available to the SFTP To Go credential you’ll use here.

Confirm the SharePoint connection

Before building the flow, make sure Power Automate has a SharePoint connection that uses an account with access to the required site, document library, and source folder.

In Power Automate:

1. Open Data.
2. Select Connections.
3. Select New connection.
4. Choose SharePoint.
5. Sign in with the Microsoft account that has access to the SharePoint content used in the flow.

When you configure the SharePoint trigger, confirm that you can select the correct Site Address, Library Name, and Folder. If any of these options are missing, check the account’s SharePoint permissions or repair the connection before continuing.

Once the SFTP connection from How to Connect Power Automate to SFTP  is working and the SharePoint connection can access the required site, library, and source folder, you’re ready to build the SharePoint-to-SFTP flow.

Prepare the SharePoint source and SFTP destination

Prepare the following:

• Permission to the SharePoint site, document library, and source folder that the flow will monitor
• Power Automate access with the SharePoint and SFTP-SSH connectors enabled
• The tested SFTP-SSH connection from Post 1, using an SFTP To Go credential allowed to write to the destination folder
• A working SharePoint connection that can access the selected site, library, and source folder
• A dedicated SharePoint folder for files that are ready for outbound transfer
• A dedicated SFTP To Go destination folder for the copied files
• Representative test files with the names, sizes, and batch volumes expected in production
• An agreed policy for duplicate names, failed runs, and who reviews exceptions

In this test, files of up to about 80MB transferred successfully through the Power Automate workflow. That isn’t an SFTP To Go storage limit, and your results may vary depending on your Microsoft tenant, connector limits, and the number of files processed at once. Test your largest expected files and realistic transfer volumes before production use.

Keep the outbound path limited to a clearly defined source and destination:

• Use a SharePoint source folder such as /Shared Documents/ToSFTP for files approved for SFTP delivery.
• Use a writable SFTP To Go folder such as /from-sharepoint as the destination for those files.

In the SharePoint trigger, select a dedicated source folder like /Shared Documents/ToSFTP, for example, rather than leaving the Folder field blank and monitoring the entire document library. Files should only be placed in this folder once they’re ready to be sent to SFTP. This prevents unrelated SharePoint uploads from starting the flow and makes the transfer queue and failed runs easier to review.

Build the SharePoint to SFTP flow in Power Automate

Step 1: Create the SharePoint upload flow

Start in Power Automate.

1. Log in to Power Automate.
2. Select Create.
3. Select Automated cloud flow.

4. Enter a name such as SharePoint to SFTP To Go Sync.
5. Search for the SharePoint trigger.
6. Select When a file is created (properties only).
7. Select Create.

The properties-only trigger works well here because it only needs to identify the new SharePoint file and expose the metadata used by later actions. It doesn’t need to retrieve the file body at the same time.

Keeping detection and content retrieval separate also makes the run history easier to diagnose. You can quickly see whether a failure happened at the trigger, content lookup, SFTP connection, or file-creation stage.

Step 2: Configure the SharePoint upload trigger

Configure the SharePoint trigger.

1. In Site Address, select the SharePoint site. In this guide, the site is S2G Sync.
2. In Library Name, select the document library, such as Documents.
3. In Folder, use the folder picker to select the SharePoint source folder. In the tested example, this is Shared Documents/To SFTP.

Only files added to the folder selected here will start the SharePoint to SFTP upload. Files uploaded elsewhere in SharePoint won’t trigger this flow.

Use the folder picker when you can. Folder paths are easy to mistype, especially when the library display name differs from the path shown in SharePoint.

Step 3: Get the SharePoint file content

At this point, the flow knows which SharePoint file was created, but it still doesn’t have the binary data that needs to be written to SFTP.

Add the SharePoint file content action:

1. Add a new step.
2. Search for SharePoint.
3. Select Get file content.

4. Set Site Address to the same SharePoint site.
5. In File Identifier, select Identifier from the dynamic content generated by the trigger.

Map the trigger’s Identifier value into Get file content. Power Automate uses that reference to retrieve the complete file body, which it can then pass to the SFTP action.

Without this action, the flow may know the file name and location, but it won’t have the content needed to create a usable copy in SFTP To Go.

Step 4: Upload the SharePoint file to SFTP To Go

Return to the SharePoint-triggered flow.

1. Add a new step.
2. Select SFTP-SSH.
3. Select Create file.
4. In Folder Path, enter /from-sharepoint.
5. Click in the File Name field.
6. Click the lightning bolt icon to open the dynamic content options.

7. Select File name with extension.

8. Click the lightning bolt icon.

9. Select File Content from the Get file content step.

10. Select Save.

Click in the File Content field.

Power Automate treats the SFTP To Go credential’s home directory as the starting point for Folder Path. That home directory may be / or another folder, so /from-sharepoint always means the from-sharepoint folder inside it. 

If the file turns up somewhere else, compare the connection root, the value in Folder Path, and the directories available to the selected credential.

Verify and troubleshoot SharePoint to SFTP sync

Step 5: Test the SharePoint to SFTP upload

Test the SharePoint to SFTP flow from the SharePoint source folder.

1. Open SharePoint.
2. Go to the ToSFTP folder.

3. Upload a single test file or multiple files.

In the tested walkthrough, a txt file and a PDF were uploaded.

4. Wait 1 to 3 minutes.

The tested SharePoint trigger checks for new files on a polling schedule; it doesn’t receive an instant event. Give the run one to three minutes to appear before you investigate a missed trigger.

5. Open the flow’s Run history.

6. Confirm that the run Succeeded.

7. Open SFTP To Go.

8. Check the /from-sharepoint folder.

9. Confirm that the uploaded files appear there.

After one file transfers successfully, add several files within the same short period, using the largest realistic file count and sizes expected in normal use. This checks whether Power Automate creates a separate successful run for every file without missing, delaying, or duplicating transfers. Review Run history and confirm that each file appears in /from-sharepoint.

Troubleshoot SharePoint to SFTP uploads

The SharePoint file does not trigger the flow

• Confirm that the file was uploaded to the exact SharePoint folder selected in the trigger.
• If the file was added to a different folder, the flow will not process it.
• Allow time for the SharePoint trigger to run. The trigger is not instant, and can take anywhere from 1 to 3 minutes, but depending on your plan, this could take longer.

SharePoint authentication fails

• Open Power Automate Connections, find the SharePoint connection, and re-authenticate.
• Complete MFA if required.
• Resubmit the failed run.

The shared SFTP connection fails

Return to the connection test in How to Connect Power Automate to SFTP for SharePoint Workflows. Confirm that List files in folder succeeds with the same SFTP To Go credential before you troubleshoot the Create file action in this flow.

The file goes to the wrong SFTP folder

• Check the SFTP folder path and the connector root.
• The SFTP-SSH connector may already start at the credential home directory.

Larger files fail

• Confirm that the flow uses a properties-only trigger followed by a separate Get file content action.
• Test file sizes gradually and record the largest reliable file size.

SharePoint to SFTP file-size and concurrency limits

In the tested setup, about 80MB per file was the practical upper limit for this outbound connector sequence. You can find further details about upper limits here, in Power Automate’s documentation. Use that figure as a tested upper bound, not a universal limit. It isn’t an SFTP To Go storage limit, and your reliable maximum may differ depending on the Microsoft tenant, connector behavior, and the number of files created close together.

The main constraints to test are file size and concurrency. Reliability can also be affected by:

• how binary file content is passed between Power Automate actions
• content-encoding overhead
• SharePoint connector and tenant constraints
• SFTP-SSH connector timeouts or action limits
• retry settings and total run duration
• destination permissions and path resolution
• filename characters, path length, and folder depth
• concurrency when several files are created close together.

Before you use the flow in production, test the exact source folder, destination path, permissions, duplicate-name policy, filename patterns, folder depth, retry settings, run frequency, and expected batch size.

Don’t rely on one small file. Test the largest file size you expect and realistic bursts of multiple files. The file format itself isn’t the main constraint here; file size, connector limits, and concurrency are. You can learn more about concurrency and limitations, here.

For the wider control model around this outbound workflow, review Managed File Transfer: MFT Software, SOC 2, GDPR, DORA, HIPAA, What Is MFT?, and Enterprise Managed File Transfer: Benefits & Best Practices.

SharePoint to SFTP sync is now set up

You’ve now built and tested the SharePoint-to-SFTP workflow. Power Automate watches the selected SharePoint folder, retrieves the content of each new file, and creates a copy in the chosen SFTP To Go folder.

After checking the folder paths, permissions, file names, expected file sizes, and concurrent transfers, the flow is ready to move approved files from SharePoint to partners or external systems over SFTP.

For details on the shared SFTP-SSH connection used in this flow, see How to Connect Power Automate to SFTP for SharePoint Workflows. If you also need to copy incoming SFTP uploads into SharePoint, continue to SFTP to SharePoint Sync.

Frequently asked questions