Why cant' I refresh my Power BI data from Excel when source is open?

[oroussel]

Hello

When I refresh Power BI data from an Excel datasource, PBI refuses to do it if datasource is already open into Excel. This was the not the case fews month before.

I guess my issue is due to my Power BI configuration as a colleague of mine does bot experience issue while also using same versions (Office 365).

Any idea ?

With thanks

Olivier

[GAW]

I'm suprised it ever worked given to laod the data into PowerBI the app essentially has to open and lock the file and if the file is already open it can not lock so errors out.

I've given it a test my end and I get the same expected results as you so can confirm that's expected behaviour.

I can not see an instance where they will change it unless you connect to an o365 version that have collaborative working on - they may well have tweaked things for that instance but I havn't tested for that.

[Pavlous]

Hi @oroussel,

If you are opening excel in desktop version and you are implementing the 'not opened' file inside PBI it shouldn't happen.

By the 'not opened' I mean the excel file which is created everytime you open excel before its closed again.

In online excel it can cause issue, as it is still active anf everychange is overwriting it.

If its the desktop option, make sure you have same version of excel file as the PowerBi is (x64 and x64) or Excel x86 and PBI x64 should work as well. But x64 excel and x86 PBI may cause the issue. It would also solve the backwards connection if you accidentally downloaded wrong version of PBI during updating it 🙂

[oroussel · Accepted solution]

Hi Pavlous

Finally, I found the solution with your comment "In online excel it can cause issue, as it is still active anf everychange is overwriting it".

My Excel datasource was located into a OneDrive directory. Now, I moved it to a standard directory (but not "Internet") and I can open simulteanoulsy Excel datasource and Power BI analysis > Save / upadte without any issue ! Perfect !!

Thanks a lot for passing this "online" information !!

Olivier