Change source of Excel to OneDrive for existing reports

[franorio]

Hello everybody,

got a question, I create some Reports on Power BI desktop, my sources are different excel files in my personal computer. Information in this excels is monthly updated and sent by india to me. Every month I overwrite those files with the new excel files. Enter to Power BI desktop, refresh with the new info on those files, save and publish to get all my dashboards in power bi services updated. 

What i want is India to upload the excel files in Onedrive, and my reports to get updated automatically. How should I proceed, to change the file source of those Excels from my Local Pc to OneDrive (business), without having to create all my reports from sctrach on power bi?

Thanks & Regards!!

[Greg_Deckler · Accepted solution]

Try this out, it may get you there.

1. Create a brand new PBIX file
2. Connect to your Excel File in OneDrive
3. In Query Editor, go to "Advanced Editor" and copy your "Source" line
4. Make a copy of your existing PBIX file (not the one you just created)
5. Go into Query Editor and then "Advanced Editor"
6. Replace the "Source" line

[locky28]

Greg this is amazing thank you so much for posting this!

Shout-out to franorio as well for asking the question clearly as well as posting the link for getting the Onedrive for Business/Sharepoint to get this going!

I'm new to PowerBI after attending a one day workshop last week and have been very impressed. This is a great solution for a Social Enterprise I'm volunteering with that'll get them some great charting/data for their business on the cheap.

Thanks again 🙂

[Greg_Deckler · Accepted solution]

Try this out, it may get you there.

1. Create a brand new PBIX file
2. Connect to your Excel File in OneDrive
3. In Query Editor, go to "Advanced Editor" and copy your "Source" line
4. Make a copy of your existing PBIX file (not the one you just created)
5. Go into Query Editor and then "Advanced Editor"
6. Replace the "Source" line

[SanjanaKotecha]

Hi @Greg_Deckler ,

I know this is an old thread but I wanted to check if the same could be achieved using Power BI Online (as I believe that it doesn't have a Query Editor).

It would be great if you could help

Thanks & Regards,

Sanjana

[franorio]

Hi @Greg_Deckler thanks for your help!!!

Did what you told me, and complement with the following article to get the onedrive excels read.

https://powerbi.microsoft.com/en-us/documentation/powerbi-desktop-use-onedrive-business-links/

My question is the following. Now the excel files will we overwrited every month on OneDrive by other people. 

And my parametrization done in Power BI desktop is reading those files in onedrive as a source. 

Is there a way to get power bi connected and updating info automatically, for example every n+5 days to get it refreshed, without going into power bi desktop and clicking refresh, save, publish?

Thanks!!

Regards!

[Greg_Deckler · Accepted solution]

You *should* just be able to schedule a refresh and since it is on OneDrive that refresh will be handled by the Service gateway. In the Service on the dataset, click the ellipses and choose "Schedule Refresh".

[lnjwilliamson86]

Thanks for this topic and solution! It has saved me lots and lots of time!