Power BI Desktop won't Accept Excel File on OneDrive that Contains "%5F" in File Name

[Anonymous]

Hi everyone, 

I just noticed a problem that if there is a Excel file on OneDrive for Business, and it's name contains "%5F" or any other HTML encoding characters, the Power BI will failed to connect to it. The file was daily automatically generated from a server and uploaded to the OneDrive. I have no access to that server, so changing the file name settings on server is not a option for me. Are there any work around for this? Thanks.

[v-xicai]

Hi @Anonymous ,

You can connect to the excel file located in OneDrive for Business using Web connector, please pay attention to the detail steps: Use OneDrive for Business links in Power BI Desktop.

Note that for the " ?web=1 " string at the end of the link , you must remove that portion of the Web URL string before selecting OK

Best Regards,

Amy

If this post helps, then please consider Accept it as the solution to help the other members find it more quickly.

[Anonymous]

That's exactly what I did. BUT if your Excel file name contains "%5F" or any other URL encoded characters, this will not work. I guess because Power BI is try to decode "%5F" as "_", which is wrong file name now. For example, I have a file called "Weekly%5FProduction.xlsx" on OneDrive, but Power BI decoded "%5F" and looking for "Weekly_Production.xlsx" instead.