PBI Service refresh from MSAccess on SharePoint?

[pkoetzing]

Hi,

My dataset is connected to a MSAccess database on SharePoint. Refreshing from PBI Desktop works fine, but refreshing from PBI Service fails with the following message:

Microsoft Access: The 'Microsoft.ACE.OLEDB.12.0' provider is not registered on the local machine.

Of cause PBI Service is not even supposed to use the local machine, but to connect directly. I've got no issues refreshing directly from a csv-file on SharePoint.

Is this actually a bug or just a missing feature, or is there any workaround available?

/Peter

[v-yuezhe-msft · Accepted solution]

@pkoetzing,

I export a Access table to sharepoint list via "Extenal data"->"More"->"SharePoint list" option in Access, after that I connect to the list using "SharePoint Online list" entry in Power BI Desktop, create report and publish report to Service.

This way, I click "Refresh Now" in Power BI Service to refresh the dataset, everything works well. Could you please perform the above steps in your scenario and check if it is successful?

Regards,
Lydia

[pkoetzing]

Hi Lydia,

I can confirm that your solution is working! But frankly it's no longer an Access database we are connecting to. I could as well export to csv files and move them to SharePoint. Again the online refresh is working. But I'm loosing all the advantages from having >100 tables in one container and beeing able to update single records ...

Thanks for your help!

Peter

[NSRjecross]

I'm afraid I agree - this isn't a solution (access on sharepoint isn't opening).

I'm having the same issue reading access databases hosted in sharepoint libraries. (We are running a premium SKU for our powerBI if that is part of the equation)

I can access and pull the data correctly out of the file from powerbi desktop.

I publish the file and check the settings... no on-premise gateway selected, oauth2 authentication credentials are set on the dataset. But if you try to refresh you get what looks like the old MDAC missing error (except since this isn't running on the gateway we control, we don't have a server to add the missing access components to.)

Any suggestions how to make the hosted report (dataset) read the database?

Thank you

Jennifer

[chaz2jerry]

Having similar issue and cannot connect from PowerBI dataflow (service) to the Access DB file on Sharepoint, even after installing Access 64bit driver on an enterprise gateway and applying the gateway in the dataflow.

Current workaround is to connect dataflow to the same Access DB file on a network drive, through the gateway (with Acces 64bit driver installed).

[NSRjecross]

@chaz2jerry  I realiased this was a very old thread, marked as resolved (because they had a workaround for the original poster).

I started a discussion https://community.powerbi.com/t5/Power-Query/reading-access-databases-hosted-in-sharepoint-libraries... to focus on connecting to the files as-is rather than having to ETL out to somewhere else first.

I'm curious how you managed to route your sharepoint connection via the on-premise gateway though. Our gateway couldn't support Oauth2 for sharepoint even last week. (just had the option pop up for us during testing this morning!)  See you on the other thread!

[v-yuezhe-msft]

@pkoetzing,

What bit version of Access database do you have?  

And how do you host Access database in SharePoint? As per my knowledge, all of Access tables become SharePoint lists and records become list items. Do you use gateway in your scenario?

Regards,
Lydia

[pkoetzing]

Hi Lydia,

I never thought of an .accdb-file bitness property. On my local machine I'm using 64bit PBI Desktop and a 64bit Microsoft Access database engine 2010. This works perfectly fine. It's the PBI Service that doesn't understand the MSAccess format.

I don't want to use the gateway. I configured PBI-Service to directly access the database file on SharePoint "from cloud to cloud". You're right, everthing on SharePoint is managed in lists, even the files, and my database is just one item in this list. But remember: PBI Desktop has no problem accessing the tables in this "database item" in the cloud, but the PBI Service has. So from my understanding the PBI server running the requested Refresh doesn't have the proper database engine installed.

And I don't know what to do about that.

/Peter

[v-yuezhe-msft]

@pkoetzing,

Could you please tell us which connector do you use to connect to the Access database stored on SharePoint Online in Power BI Desktop?

Regards,
Lydia

[pkoetzing]

Hi Lydia,

I'm actually using the "SharePoint folder" connector. E.g. in the query I have

let

    PowerXpert = "https://tenant.sharepoint.com/sites/Departments/PowerXpert/",
    Solutions = PowerXpert & "ModelData/3-SRCPS/2017-05-23 Release 9/Solutions/",
    Source = SharePoint.Files(PowerXpert, [ApiVersion = 15]),
    File = Source{[Name="Fuel_Report.accdb",#"Folder Path"=Solutions]}[Content],
    Import = Access.Database(File),
    Fuel_Prices = Import{[Schema="",Item="Fuel_Prices"]}[Data],

    ...

Before I tried the "Access database" connector, but couldn't get that working on SharePoint.

/Peter

[Greg_Deckler]

So...you have an Access database in SharePoint Online?