Forum Discussion
Advocate IVPBIRS Sep. 2026 using excel as datasource
PBIRS Sep 2026 has been released and the change log shows "Setup no longer installs the Microsoft Access Database Engine. To use Access or Excel data sources, install the Access Database Engine on the report server".
Is there any documentation or SOP tell us about which version of Access Database Engine to install?
or I have to install it from M365 Office installer?
1 Reply
- v-csrikanth
Community Support
Hi Vanchy_Liao
Good question and as per my knowledge there is documentation for this, on the PBIRS paginated report data sources page rather than in the changelog.
It states directly: "To use Access or Excel data sources starting with the September 2026 release, an administrator must separately install the Microsoft 365 Access Runtime on the computer running Power BI Report Server."
So the answer to your second question is no you don't need the Microsoft 365/Office installer. The Access Runtime is a free standalone download. For a 64-bit PBIRS environment, install the 64-bit (x64) build; the Power BI guidance gives the same advice for the equivalent Desktop and gateway cases ("install the 64-bit Access 365 Runtime").
The same page also confirms the scope, which is broader than you might assume: "Access and Excel data sources rely on the Microsoft Access Database Engine (ACE) OLE DB provider (Microsoft.ACE.OLEDB.*) to read Access databases (.accdb, .mdb) and Excel workbooks (.xls, .xlsx) through OLE DB." Modern .xlsx workbooks are included, so plan to validate all Access and Excel paginated reports after upgrading.
One thing worth knowing before you install: avoid the Access Database Engine 2016 Redistributable, which is the usual first instinct. Microsoft explicitly advises against it — it "is not provided as a recommended installation because both the Access Database Engine 2016 and Microsoft 365 Apps use the same major version identifier (16.0) which may introduce unexpected behaviors", and "Office side-by-side detection will also prevent the installation from proceeding if this scenario is detected."
References:
- https://learn.microsoft.com/power-bi/report-server/connect-data-sources
- https://learn.microsoft.com/power-bi/report-server/changelog
- https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/access/download-and-install-microsoft-365-access-runtime
- https://learn.microsoft.com/office/troubleshoot/access/cannot-use-odbc-or-oledb
- https://learn.microsoft.com/power-bi/connect-data/desktop-access-database-errors
Thanks,
C Srikanth
Community Support Team
