Combine File - Special Character Filename Errors

[Anonymous]

Has anyone found any workaround for errors when combining files whose file name contains special characters?

I am trying to combine over 500 files in a Sharepoint folder; however, many of them contain a '#', which from my understanding now is an issue and creates an error.  The only published documentation I see says the file owner must rename the file, but I'm really struggling with that being the only solution and the work it would take for someone to go out and manually scrub these file names.

[v-kelly-msft · Accepted solution]

Hi  @Anonymous ,

If a filename contains certain special characters, it may lead to authentication errors because of the filename being truncated in the URL. If you're getting unusual authentication errors, make sure all of the filenames you're using don't contain any of the following special characters.

# % $

If these characters are present in the filename, the file owner must rename the file so that it does NOT contain any of these characters.

So after connecting sharepoint folder>select "Transform data":

Then check below thread to replace all the special Character;

https://community.powerbi.com/t5/Desktop/Power-Query-Replace-multiple-substrings-in-one-column/m-p/409573

After that,do the combine option.

Best Regards,
Kelly

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