Strange error pattern "Query references other queries or steps, so it may not directly access ... "

[KimStahl94]

Hello,

I know that there are already some requests on this topic, but everything I have read and tried did not work. So please here me out.

I am querying some Excel files stored on SharePoint365 for my final exam and I am getting the following error message:" DIM BWA' (step 'Changed Type') references other queries or steps, so it may not directly access a data source. Please rebuild this data combination." It does not show the "Formula.Firewall" Part in the beginning, but I guess this is due to my language setup (German).

I have already tried to "ignore privacy levels", I have configured the affected queries as functions and I have created a staging area to not merge queries that are directly connected to SharePoint 365. I also tried to recreate the entire report, which eventually resulted in the same error after I set up the #"DIM BWA" query. You can find the query dependencies here.

Interestingly, the error only occurs when saving the report as a .pbit file. Furthermore, the error pattern varies. Sometimes I don't get the error at all. Sometimes the error shows up, but not always for the same and sometimes even multiple queries. But every query that is affected is in the branch of #"DIM BWA" which is based on #"Raw Actual Data".

Does anyone have any ideas on how to fix this? If you need any additional information, please let me know.

Regards
KS

[Anonymous]

Hi @KimStahl94 ,

Did you try to go into Power Query to find the error steps? Could you please share some screenshots?

Similar thread:

https://excelguru.ca/power-query-errors-please-rebuild-this-data-combination/

Best Regards,
Eyelyn Qin

[KimStahl94]

Hi @Anonymous ,

thank you for your reply. I have tried to find the error step. It is always the last step of the referenced query. When I add another step to the query, it references the added step. So I suspect that the error is not caused by the step itself. 

I also implemented a staging area as you can see above in my linked query dependencies. So every merged query (#"Wertenachweis Summen", #"Wertenachweis gesamt", #"Kontenzuordnung") is also not quering its data from SharePoint but from another table, that is connected to SharePoint.

Below I attached a screenshot and here you can find the code of the referenced query.

Regards

KS

[KimStahl94]

I want to add, that the error message does not say Formula.Firewall at the beginning. It is just as described above. Still I came across this article here and am wondering if it has to do with the several merging and expanding steps in the partition context. How could I embed a merging step without referencing the other query?