How to Schedule an Out of Office Reply with Power Automate, by Automate M365 on YouTube. 3 min 39 s.
- Video length
- 3 min 39 s
- Time to do it
- 15 minutes
- Difficulty
- Medium
- Steps
- 8
What you need
Steps
Go to make.powerautomate.com, sign in with your Microsoft 365 account, choose Create and pick Scheduled cloud flow.
Name the flow, set the repeat to every 1 week, choose Friday, and set the hour and minute your working day ends. Set the time zone to your own.
Add a new step, search for Outlook, and select the Set up automatic replies (V2) action.
Point the Mailbox Address field at your own account, then fill in the Start Time and End Time fields for the reply window.
In Start Time, paste addHours(startOfDay(convertTimeZone(utcNow(), 'UTC', 'W. Europe Standard Time')), 16) and swap in your own timezone value. The 16 means 4pm.
In End Time, paste addHours(addDays(startOfDay(convertTimeZone(utcNow(), 'UTC', 'W. Europe Standard Time')), 1), 22). The 1 moves to the next day and 22 means 10pm.
Type your reply into the Internal Message and External Message boxes. Use the same text in both if everyone should get one message.
Click Save, then use Test and run it manually to confirm the reply turns on and the start and end times look correct.
Tips and common mistakes
Replace 'W. Europe Standard Time' in both expressions with your own Windows timezone name, or the flow will use the wrong hours.
Write the hour numbers on the 24-hour clock: 16 is 4pm and 22 is 10pm.
The addDays part pushes the end time to the following day, so a Friday start can run until Sunday night.
Turn the flow itself off if you want to skip a week, rather than editing the expressions.
Questions
Does this replace the out of office setting in Outlook?
No. It switches the same Outlook automatic replies on a schedule, so whatever you set here is what senders receive. You do not need to turn it on by hand in Outlook.
How do I change the times to match my own day?
Change the last number in each expression. Use 17 for a 5pm start and 23 for an 11pm end, and keep the addDays value at 1 if the reply should end the next day.
Will the flow run if my computer is switched off?
Yes. The flow runs in the cloud on the schedule you set, as long as the flow is turned on in Power Automate.
This guide was drafted from the video's details and general task knowledge. It has not been checked against the full video. Check the video and relevant product instructions before following a procedure. Report a correction.
