Intermediate

Google Drive Folder Cleanup and Retention

On a schedule, the flow scans Google Drive folders for files older than a retention window or matching cleanup rules, archives them to cold storage (SharePoint/Blob), removes or trashes the originals, and emails an owner a report of what was cleaned. Enforces retention and reclaims Drive space automatically.

Google DriveAzure Blob StorageOffice 365 Outlook

Unique name

FlowLibsGoogleDriveCleanupRetention

Publisher

FlowLibs (flowlibs)

Version

1.0.0.0

Components

5 env vars + 1 cloud flow

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Provided as-is, without warranty of any kind. Review and test each pattern in a non-production environment before deploying it to live automations. See our Terms.

What it does

Overview

This flow enforces a retention policy on a Google Drive folder. On a daily schedule it lists every file in a watched folder, selects those last modified before a configurable retention cutoff, copies each expired file to Azure Blob cold storage (organized by yyyy/MM), deletes the original from Drive only after the archive copy succeeds, and emails an owner an HTML report of everything that was cleaned.

Why it matters: Drive folders accumulate stale files, raising storage cost and compliance risk. This automation enforces a defined retention window, keeps an immutable off-platform archive, and reclaims Drive space - with a safe archive-before-delete ordering so nothing is lost.

Status: Built as an unmanaged FlowLibs solution. Ships Off (demo). Going live requires only authorizing the three connections and setting the environment-variable values.

Why you'd use it

Use Case

IT Admins / Operations want stale files in a shared Google Drive folder archived and removed automatically on a retention schedule, with a daily audit report of what was cleaned and where it was archived.

Step-by-step

Flow Architecture

Recurrence Daily Cleanup Scan

Recurrence

Runs the cleanup once per day (Day/1, 02:00 PST).

Initialize Retention Days

Initialize Variable (Integer)

int(flowlibs_RetentionDays) - retention window.

Initialize Cutoff Date

Initialize Variable (String)

addDays(utcNow(), -retentionDays) cutoff timestamp.

Initialize Storage Account

Initialize Variable (String)

Blob storage account from env var.

Initialize Archive Path

Initialize Variable (String)

Base archive folder path from env var.

Initialize Report Recipient

Initialize Variable (String)

Report email address from env var.

Initialize Cleaned Count

Initialize Variable (Integer)

Counter of cleaned files (0).

Initialize Cleaned Rows

Initialize Variable (String)

HTML row accumulator for the report.

List Drive Files

Google Drive - ListFolder

Lists items in the watched folder (Id, Name, LastModified, Size, IsFolder).

Filter Old Files

Filter Array (Query)

Keeps non-folder files older than the cutoff.

Apply to each Old File

Foreach (sequential)

Solution config

Environment Variables

Schema name	Type	Default	Description
flowlibs_DriveFolderId	String	REPLACE_WITH_GOOGLE_DRIVE_FOLDER_ID	Google Drive folder to scan.
flowlibs_RetentionDays	String	2555	Retention window in days (parsed to integer).
flowlibs_BlobStorageAccount	String	flowlibsdemostorage	Azure Blob storage account (archive target / dataset).
flowlibs_BlobArchiveFolderPath	String	/lifecycle-archive	Base folder path in the blob container.
flowlibs_CleanupReportRecipient	String	it-admin@yourcompany.com	Email address for the cleanup report.

Auth dependencies

Connectors & Connections

Connector	API name	Actions used
Google Drive	shared_googledrive	ListFolder GetFileContent DeleteFile
Azure Blob Storage	shared_azureblob	CreateFile_V2
Office 365 Outlook	shared_office365	SendEmailV2

Note — All connections are referenced as solution connection references; the flow is portable between environments as long as a connection is mapped at import time.

Tweaks & variations

Customization Guide

Almost every realistic variant of this flow can be implemented by changing environment variable values. A few cases require small edits inside the flow definition — those are called out explicitly below.

Trash vs. hard delete: DeleteFile removes the original. To keep a Drive recovery window, route to a Trashed sub-folder via a move/rename pattern instead of deleting.
Multiple folders: Wrap the List + Filter + loop in an outer Apply-to-each over a comma-split list of folder ids (add a flowlibs_CleanupFolderIds env var).
Tiered retention: Use different flowlibs_RetentionDays values per folder, or add rule-based exclusions (e.g. legal hold) in the Filter where clause.
Dry run: Comment out (remove runAfter chain to) Delete Original File to run report-only first.
SharePoint instead of Blob: Swap Archive To Cold Storage for SharePoint CreateFile if the archive should live in a document library.

Helpers & literals

Key Expressions

The flow is intentionally light on Power Fx / WDL gymnastics — the heaviest expressions are the branch-name concatenation and the approval outcome check. They are listed below in the order they appear in the flow.

EXPR.01Retention days

Parse the retention window to an integer.

workflow definition language

@int(parameters('EnvVar_RetentionDays'))

EXPR.02Cutoff date

Compute the retention cutoff timestamp.

workflow definition language

@addDays(utcNow(), mul(variables('varRetentionDays'), -1))

EXPR.03Old-file filter

Keep non-folder files older than the cutoff.

workflow definition language

@and(equals(item()?['IsFolder'], false), less(item()?['LastModified'], variables('varCutoffDate')))

EXPR.04Archive folder path

Date-organized archive path.

workflow definition language

@concat(variables('varArchivePath'), '/', formatDateTime(utcNow(), 'yyyy/MM'))

EXPR.05Report row

Build one HTML report row per cleaned file.

workflow definition language

@concat('<tr><td>', items('Apply_to_each_Old_File')?['Name'], '</td><td>', formatDateTime(items('Apply_to_each_Old_File')?['LastModified'], 'yyyy-MM-dd'), '</td><td>', string(items('Apply_to_each_Old_File')?['Size']), '</td></tr>')

Make it yours

Customize & download

Generate a ready-to-import copy of this solution with your environment-variable values baked in — available on Base, Pro, or Team.

Upgrade to customize

Google Drive Folder Cleanup and Retention

Overview

Use Case

Flow Architecture

Recurrence Daily Cleanup Scan

Initialize Retention Days

Initialize Cutoff Date

Initialize Storage Account

Initialize Archive Path

Initialize Report Recipient

Initialize Cleaned Count

Initialize Cleaned Rows

List Drive Files

Filter Old Files

Apply to each Old File

Environment Variables

Connectors & Connections

Customization Guide

Key Expressions

EXPR.01Retention days

EXPR.02Cutoff date

EXPR.03Old-file filter

EXPR.04Archive folder path

EXPR.05Report row

Customize & download

Get File Content

Archive To Cold Storage

Delete Original File

Increment Cleaned Count

Append Cleaned Row

Compose Report Body

Send Cleanup Report

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