Connecting to SharePoint folder vs direct link

[kvnbn]

All of my files are on SharePoint. I've been connecting to them by getting the direct link to each SharePoint file, but I learned that you can connect to a SharePoint folder/site and navigate to the file that way as well. Which method is better and why?

I looked at this thread but it didn't really answer the question:

Advantages of connecting data via direct Excel workbook or SharePoint Folder 

[christinepayton · Accepted solution]

The folder connector is for when you're trying to load multiple files with the same data structure - e.g. a folder of CSVs where you add one CSV per month or similar. It starts its query at the site level, meaning it pulls all file info in the site, then you filter it down and expand the files... it creates a folder of helper queries to do the combination.

You can connect to single files individually if your data is not the same structure every time - that way you won't get the folder of helper queries and have to step through the site-level feed. You don't need a gateway for either one if you use the path of the file in SP Online.

[Idrissshatila]

Hello @kvnbn ,

connecting to an excel sheet directly won't let you automatically refresh it in service untill you have an online gateway that is on a server that is always online, while when it's on a sharepoint you could schedule a refresh because the excel is in cloud.

also you could check this https://community.fabric.microsoft.com/t5/Desktop/Difference-between-Sharepoint-list-vs-Sharepoint-O....

If I answered your question, please mark my post as solution, Appreciate your Kudos 👍

Follow me on Linkedin
Vote for my Community Mobile App Idea 💡

[kvnbn]

To clarify, I'm not linking to files stored on my desktop. I'm getting the links to the files from our SharePoint site by copying the Path. The link is formatted like https://xxxxxxx.sharepoint.com/sites/SITENAME/Shared%20Documents/filename.csv. I use this link when I connect to a Web source on Power BI.  

I'm still able to automatically refresh my sheets in Service this way because the source is from SharePoint. But I'm wondering if connecting to the SharePoint folder and navigating to the file via Power Query is a better practice.