Refreshing against a 2003 Excel .xls file.

[MaxTampa]

Hi,

Is there a way to refresh in the PowerBI service against a 2003 Excel xls. file. All documents show that this is not possible, but does anyone have a work around?

I have 16 eexcel files that are sent to a sharepoint folder in Excel 2003 .xls format. My report is built on these excel file. Currently I have to refresh in the Deskptop app and publish to the service three times a day.

Thanks for the Help.

Max Tampa

[v-lid-msft]

Hi @MaxTampa ,

Based on this document, we think it is possible if your use current OLEDB provider, Please notice the excel rows and there are an annotation in the "Connect and refresh from service" says: Excel 1997-2003 files (.xls) require the ACE OLEDB provider.

Best regards,

[MaxTampa]

@v-lid-msft 

I have the ACE provider installed on my desktop but, The PBI service is refershing against a sharepoint document library which is independant from my desktop. How does the ACE provider on my desktop fit into the PBI service refresh?

Thanks

Max

[v-lid-msft]

Hi @MaxTampa ,

We can try to publish this report into service and then configure a gateway ,which installed in a machine having the correct ACE provider, for the excel data source (configure data source in the manage gateway page, then map excel file to it in the setting of dataset).

Best regards,

[MaxTampa]

@v-lid-msft 

The need is to auto refresh from the PBI service. I dont want to have a local machine running to accomodate a refresh. Is there any other way to refresh?

Thanks

Max