Check If a Folder, File, List, Column or Site Exists in SharePoint Online (PnP PowerShell)

Provisioning scripts usually break the same way: they create a folder that’s already there, upload into a missing library, or add a column twice. A quick existence check before each step makes the script safe to rerun.

Here’s how I check whether a folder, file, list, column or site exists in SharePoint Online with PnP PowerShell, and how to create a folder only when it’s missing. Every script ran in PowerShell 7 with PnP PowerShell 3.3.0 on my own Microsoft 365 tenant, and the screenshots are real output.

Quick answer: Run Get-PnPFolder -Url "Shared Documents/Reports" -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue and test the result: $null means the folder doesn’t exist. Use the library’s URL name (Shared Documents), not its display name (Documents). To create the folder only if it’s missing, run Resolve-PnPFolder -SiteRelativePath "Shared Documents/Reports".

Check if a folder exists with Get-PnPFolder

Connect to the site first with Connect-PnPOnline and your own Entra ID app (see how to install PnP PowerShell). Get-PnPFolder -Url accepts a site-relative path or a server-relative one. When the folder is missing, it returns an error, so add -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue and treat $null as “not found”:

function Test-PnPFolderExists ([string]$Path) {
    [bool](Get-PnPFolder -Url $Path -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue)
}

$folderPath = "Shared Documents/Sales Reports/2026"
if (-not (Test-PnPFolderExists $folderPath)) {
    $null = Resolve-PnPFolder -SiteRelativePath $folderPath
    "Created: $folderPath"
}

Resolve-PnPFolder created both the parent folder and the 2026 subfolder in one call. Notice the last line: the path with “Documents” returned False even though the folder exists. The default library’s display name is Documents, but its URL is Shared Documents, and Get-PnPFolder only understands the URL.

Resolve-PnPFolder on its own is safe to rerun because it never creates a duplicate. For folders inside a brand-new library, creating a document library with folders shows the full setup.

Check if a file exists in a document library

Get-PnPFile works the same way. Add -AsListItem to get the file’s metadata without downloading it:

$file = Get-PnPFile -Url "Shared Documents/Sales Reports/2026/Sales-Report-10-2026.csv" `
    -AsListItem -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue
if ($file) { "File exists, modified $($file['Modified'])" } else { "File not found" }

If you prefer try/catch, add -ThrowExceptionIfFileNotFound -ErrorAction Stop. That switch only works together with -AsListItem. Once you know the file is there, downloading files from SharePoint uses the same paths.

Check if a list or library exists

Get-PnPList -Identity takes the title, the ID or the URL (Lists/ContosoDemoTasks). In PnP PowerShell 3.3.0, a missing list writes a red “does not exist” error, so the -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue is needed here too. The URL check is safer: a renamed list keeps its URL. It’s the check I run before creating a SharePoint list and adding columns.

Check if a column exists in a list

Get-PnPField -List "Contoso Demo Tasks" -Identity "DueDate" -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue returns the column or $null. In my test, both the internal name (DueDate) and the display name (Due Date) found it, while Region came back missing. To look up internal names first, use the list column details script.

Check if a site exists

For sites, connect to the SharePoint admin center (you need the SharePoint Administrator role) and call Get-PnPTenantSite -Identity with the full URL:

$admin = Connect-PnPOnline -Url "https://contoso-admin.sharepoint.com" -ClientId $clientId `
    -Interactive -ReturnConnection
$site = Get-PnPTenantSite -Identity "https://contoso.sharepoint.com/sites/Sales" `
    -Connection $admin -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue
if ($site) { "Site exists ($($site.Template))" } else { "Site not found" }

Without admin rights, connect to the URL itself and run Get-PnPWeb -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue. Connect-PnPOnline succeeds even for a missing site, but Get-PnPWeb returns nothing. If you build this into a flow instead, see checking if a site exists in Power Automate.

Common mistakes

• Using the display name: “Documents/Reports” fails, “Shared Documents/Reports” works. Check the library’s URL with (Get-PnPList "Documents").RootFolder.ServerRelativeUrl.
• try/catch never fires: these errors are non-terminating. Add -ErrorAction Stop inside the try block.
• Get-PnPTenantSite access denied: you’re connected to a regular site, not the admin URL.

You’ll find more ready-to-run examples in the PnP PowerShell scripts for SharePoint collection.

If you check SharePoint content in scripts or flows, these guides help too:

• How to Check if SharePoint List Already Exists in Power Automate?
• How to check if a file exists in the SharePoint document library in Power Automate?
• Get SharePoint Folder Permissions Using PnP PowerShell
• PowerShell Test-Path: How to Verify File and Folder Existence

Frequently Asked Questions