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Anonymous
Not applicable

PowerBI outlook import issues

Hi all,

 

I am trying to get data on the attachments sent to a mailbox I manage. 

I have connected via Outlook Exchange Online and all data is pulling through correctly apart from attachments.

 

The issue is, data does come through and I can edit it, however when I try and expand the attachments column and refresh preview or 'apply changes' outside of Power Query, everything breaks down and I get the follow error message: 

 

"OLE DB or ODBC error: [DataSource.Error] The request failed. The remote server returned an error: (503) Server Unavailable.."

 

I have tried both ms exchange and ms exchange online yet still get the same error. 

 

Any thoughts?

 

Thank you in advance!

 

9 REPLIES 9
Anonymous
Not applicable

Hello @Anonymous ,

can you please provide a screenshot and / or more explanation around the specific error? I would like to help since I have implemented the same but I am not sure I can fully understand :


" when I try and expand the attachments column and refresh preview or 'apply changes' outside of Power Query"

 

What do you mean "outside of power query"?

 

Where do you need to store the attachments?

 

DO you need to process them in Pquery as well?

 

Can you try to do the same in PBI Desktop and see what happens?

Anonymous
Not applicable

Hi @Anonymous ,

 

I can expand and amend all other data without any issues, however when I expand the below column to get the attachment names and file extensions, PowerBI does not like it.

 

at.png

 

I get the following error every single time:

 

"DataSource.Error: The request failed. The remote server returned an error: (503) Server Unavailable.
Details:
DataSourceKind=Exchange
DataSourcePath=xxxx@xxxxx.com"

 

With regard to your questions:

What do you mean "outside of power query"? - sorry this is just means on the view that you create the actual charts/graphs

 

Where do you need to store the attachments? - I do not need to store the attachments anywhere, I just need to pull their names

 

DO you need to process them in Pquery as well?  - just need to filter the extension type so only pdfs remain. 

 

Can you try to do the same in PBI Desktop and see what happens? - I have been doing this in pbi desktop, have not tried an alternative

 

Hi @Anonymous 

The 503 error is an http 'service unavailable' error coming from IIS, It is probably hitting the limit on what the web server will accept.

Please check this article and filter your data, then try to expand the "Attachment" column.

https://radacad.com/import-email-attachments-directly-into-a-power-bi-report-using-power-query

 

Best Regards
Maggie
Community Support Team _ Maggie Li
If this post helps, then please consider Accept it as the solution to help the other members find it more quickly.

Anonymous
Not applicable

Hi @v-juanli-msft,

 

I followed that approach - there are less than a few hundred articles yet it stills gives the same error when I try and refresh.

 

I does not do this with my personal inbox, only my shared.

 

Thoughts?

Anonymous
Not applicable

Hi @Anonymous Are you administrator of the mailbox?

 

If you can, install free PBI desktop and see what happens.

 

Is there another mailbox you can try this on, so you can test?

 

What Excel are you using?

Anonymous
Not applicable

Hi,

 

I'm not an administrator however I have access to the shared mailbox. 

 

I have a PowerBI Pro license and am using desktop.

 

I'll test it out on my personal inbox and see if the issue remains.

 

And I am not usnig excel - I am using PowerBI. Apologies if I've misunderstood anything -very new to PBI!

Anonymous
Not applicable

No problem, I think this is the PowerQuery subforum, this is why I was asking.

It happened to me as well to post questions about PowerQuery in Excel on the wrong forum.

Try to do the same using Excel at this point, see what happens

Anonymous
Not applicable

Sorry, I'm getting confused. Why would I be using Excel instead? Also do you mean MS Excel or am I mixing it up with a PowerBI feature?

Anonymous
Not applicable

Hello, apologies for the confusion.

My suggestion was to just try to use the PowerQuery functionality that comes with Excel to connect to an Exchange Mailbox.

https://www.excelguru.ca/blog/2014/01/09/using-powerquery-with-email/

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