Find & Use Microsoft To Do For Your Personal Account in Power Automate

Way before Microsoft had a fully-fledged Outlook and Microsoft To Do app for iOS and Android, there were two apps that tightly integrated with each other to form an absolute machine in productivity – Sunrise and Wunderlist.

Tasks would show as ‘All Day’ items at the top of your calendar, with ticks next to each one completed as a frequent reminder of progress as you check your calendar for the seventeenth time during the working day.

A digitally produced image of Sunrise Calendar with Wunderlist Integration on an iPad
Sunrise Calendar with Wunderlist Integration on an iPad

Microsoft bought both of those products and that’s how we arrived at Microsoft’s eventual Outlook Tasks replacement and the ability to add third party calendars to our Outlook with ease, but not all features were migrated easily, and I have always wanted a replacement, but never found one.

By using the Power Platform, we now have the ability to bring together the capabilities of personal Microsoft To Do with Outlook, and any other service is hidden within the Outlook Tasks Connector within Power Automate!

Simply search for the Outlook Tasks when creating a flow, and once you’ve chosen your trigger or action, you’ll be able to see your tasks.

A screenshot showing the selection of a Microsoft To Do list in Power Automate via the Outlook Tasks Connector
Selecting a Microsoft To Do list in Power Automate via the Outlook Tasks Connector

I’m unsure on when exactly this feature became available for personal accounts, but Microsoft To Do with business accounts has been available for a while under it’s own Connector.

What’s the catch?

As with a lot of early Connectors that have since had iterative updates in Power Automate, not all actions are built consistently.

A screenshot showing a list of some of the available Actions within the Outlook Tasks Connector.
A list of some of the available Actions within the Outlook Tasks Connector.

We also have to bear in mind that Microsoft To Do and Outlook Tasks are built on entirely different architectures where functionality has merged over the years, and therefore there are several fields available that may not directly align to what you expect, particularly when trying to use the data you’ve received in another Connector.

Having said all of the above, once you have established the correct Dynamic Values and the correct Actions to use, the connector is extremely reliable and hasn’t failed me yet in any working examples.

References

Microsoft Docs: Outlook Tasks Connector

Microsoft Docs: Microsoft To Do (Business) Connector

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