Migrating Automations v1 to v2
A v1 Automation runs one action from one trigger: Copy Files, Move Files, Delete Files, Create Folders, Import Files, or Run Sync. A v2 Automation runs a graph of connected nodes.
Automations v2 is supported for production use and has been available since September 2026. Your existing v1 Automations continue to run unchanged, and migration is not currently required. We intend to begin requiring migration to v2 in late 2026 or early 2027.
V1 has a longer operational history. Most customers taking a conservative approach are remaining on v1 while v2 gains more operational history, even though many customers already use v2 in production. Contact Files.com Support or your account manager to enable v2 if your site does not show v2 creation or conversion options.
Conversion is one way: a converted Automation cannot be changed back to v1. To evaluate v2, convert a disabled clone and preserve the original v1 Automation as a fallback.
What Changes
| Area | A v1 Automation | A v2 Automation |
|---|---|---|
| Ownership | Owned by the site or by the Folder Admin who last edited it; runs with the current owner's permissions. A user-owned Automation continues when its owner is disabled, fails if required folder permissions are removed, and is disabled if its owner is deleted without reassignment | Owned by the site or a Workspace, never a person, and unaffected by changes to any user's account |
| Shape | One trigger and one action | One trigger and a graph of nodes, with branches, conditions, and an Error path on every node after the trigger |
| Revisions | Edits replace the configuration | Every saved change to the graph creates a Revision, and each run records the Revision it used |
| Retries | A retry replans against current files and destinations, excluding matching operations already successful or skipped | A retry resumes at the failed node and reuses the completed nodes' outputs, and a finished run can be rerun from any node |
| Errors | One error message per failed operation | An error type for each failed item, rules on each node whose action is Continue or Propagate, and an Error path that receives the failed items when the matching rule is Continue |
| Run status | Success, Partial Failure, Failure, Skipped, Queued, Running | The same, plus Canceled, and a status for each node |
| Run detail | A list of operations | The graph of the run with each node's items, timing, errors, and journal |
| Webhook input | Body ignored; request parameters available as tokens | JSON data items, or path-based selection; query and form parameters available separately in the run context |
| Calculated names and paths | Percent placeholders for filenames, folders, dates, and request parameters | Ordinary TransformScript expressions; percent text outside FTS syntax is literal |
| Incoming Email trigger | Not available | Available |
| Manual runs from the API | Start the run | Start the run and can supply the files or data to process |
| Log records | Operation, path, destination, status | The same, with the node's ID and type and the error type added |
What Stays the Same
Shared settings include folder-path and filename wildcards, Exclude Pattern, overwrite options, Flatten Folders, Ignore Locked Folders, and scheduling options such as time zones, Holiday Region, and Saved Schedules. In v2, configure these on the trigger or the node that uses them. An Automation with a File Action trigger still cannot be started manually, and a Move File node with several destinations still copies to all but the last destination and moves to the last.
Conversion retains the Automation's ID, name, Workspace, schedules, webhook URL, inbound email address, and enabled or disabled state. A disabled clone stays disabled; converting an enabled Automation does not disable it. Existing v1 Automations remain unchanged unless you convert them.
Converted Expressions and Inputs
Conversion replaces supported v1 placeholders with direct FTS expressions for file parts, parent folders, dates, and webhook parameters. For example, archive/%Y/%Ff becomes a date expression and fileName(attributes.path) in a destination template.
The name and folder equivalents and date example explain how to read and adapt those expressions. Values calculated during a run remain text; a filename containing %Y is not interpreted again as a year.
Webhook parameters become lookups in context.parameters, separate from the JSON body. Converted parameter identifiers contain letters, digits, and underscores: %u-name.txt reads the parameter name and appends the literal .txt. A missing required parameter fails evaluation. Review parameter-based names when the old workflow relied on partial-name matching or punctuation in parameter names.
The converted graph uses the nodes' native selection behavior. Action-triggered Import Files uses event mode, allowing an import even when the triggering file has disappeared.
Other converted action-triggered operations use file mode and skip folders and missing files. Create Folders with a folder path selects each matched folder using the incoming pattern . so its output can be created for every matched folder without requiring a file inside it.
Each Import Files request entry becomes one Import File node containing all of that entry's destination paths. Two entries that use the same URL remain separate nodes, preserving their request methods, headers, content, and filenames. Each destination still causes a separate request and upload; conversion does not replace those requests with one download distributed to several locations. Import File explains that distinction.
Converting an Automation
Conversion requires a Site Administrator or a Workspace Administrator for the Automation's Workspace. Folder Admins cannot convert v1 Automations to v2: v2 uses site or Workspace ownership, and administering the converted workflow requires authority over that owner.
Before migrating a workflow, clone the v1 Automation and leave the clone disabled. Convert the clone rather than the original. Review its source paths, destinations, and trigger before testing so that it does not process the same production files as the original.
On a site with v2 enabled, select Convert to V2 on the clone, or convert it through the Files.com API. Conversion produces Revision 1 of the v2 Automation with one trigger and one action node, except Import Files, which has one action node per request entry. It preserves the clone's enabled or disabled state.
Conversion is not performed when runs are queued or running, when configuration is incomplete or unsupported, or when the converted graph fails validation or exceeds the node limit. Invalid referenced resources or import settings can prevent it. The operation leaves the v1 Automation unchanged instead of saving part of a conversion.
We recommend reviewing the converted graph in the Builder before you enable the Automation. The Automations list shows each Automation's Version, V1 or V2, and a converted Automation's details page shows its Type and its current Revision. Runs recorded before the conversion retain the format they were recorded in.
Creating New Automations While Both Kinds Exist
On sites with v2 enabled, the Automations list offers New Automation v1 and New Automation v2. Sites without v2 enabled offer only v1 creation. Contact Support or your account manager to enable v2.
Choose v2 when you need connected multi-step workflows, transformations, or conditional branches. V1 remains available when its single-action model meets your needs or you prefer its longer operational history.