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Irbaz
Frequent Visitor

Refresh local Excel Datasource in PowerBI Desktop

I am using many excel files as a datasource for my PowerBI report in PowerBI desktop. Is there any way I can refresh the excel files data source once a day ?
I've checked, In Power BI Desktop we can use directquery to refresh the report page but can we apply this for excel files ?

***  I also find out that data source refresh option is only availabe in PowerBi service.

1 REPLY 1
AlexisOlson
Super User
Super User

You can schedule refreshes in the Power BI Service but not in Power BI Desktop (which is designed for report creation rather than report consumption). Note that you'll need to have a Data Gateway in order for the Service to connect to your Excel files (unless you have the Excel files saved to OneDrive or SharePoint or another online source).

 

DirectQuery is not compatible with Excel files since DirectQuery requires the source to essentially be a server that runs its own queries.

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