Skip to main content
cancel
Showing results for 
Search instead for 
Did you mean: 

Calling all Data Engineers! Fabric Data Engineer (Exam DP-700) live sessions are back! Starting October 16th. Sign up.

Reply
Anonymous
Not applicable

"Object reference not set to an instance of an object" - getting data from Excel

I continuosly have the same issue with my Desktop Power BI. I get this error message regardless of what type of data I am trying to ingest to Power BI. At times I use data from SharePoint, excel files from my drive, or even desktop. The interesting part is, that if I restart my computer and launch Power BI again, everything starts working. After a couple hours, when I import new data I get the same error. Sometimes I get this error right after starting the application - there's just no telling when it will happen. To clarify: my Power BI, as well as my operating system are both 64 bits and I have the newest version of Power BI Desktop. Any suggestions?

2 REPLIES 2
JulianNoarmenn
New Member

Check if the error message contains the following excerpt: “Microsoft.Mashup.Evaluator.Interface.ErrorException: Specified value has invalid CRLF characters”. If yes, it means there is a corrupted file. I followed these steps and it worked:

Try opening this file in the appropriate software, for example, if it is a spreadsheet, open it in Microsft Excel, and try to save it as a new file and replace the previous one.

Source: https://powerbipoint.com/2024/01/02/power-bi-fix-the-error-object-reference-not-set-to-an-instance-o... 

Anonymous
Not applicable

Hi @Anonymous,

In fact, it is a common exception that appears when you try to access or reference objects. It means you are trying to reference to an Object which is not initialized or initialize failed. (these exceptions can be catch and handle by programming language error but you can't do customize on each connector)

You can take a look at the following document to know more about 'null reference exceptions':

NullReferenceException

Regards,

Xiaoxin Sheng

Helpful resources

Announcements
FabCon Global Hackathon Carousel

FabCon Global Hackathon

Join the Fabric FabCon Global Hackathon—running virtually through Nov 3. Open to all skill levels. $10,000 in prizes!

September Power BI Update Carousel

Power BI Monthly Update - September 2025

Check out the September 2025 Power BI update to learn about new features.

FabCon Atlanta 2026 carousel

FabCon Atlanta 2026

Join us at FabCon Atlanta, March 16-20, for the ultimate Fabric, Power BI, AI and SQL community-led event. Save $200 with code FABCOMM.

Top Solution Authors
Top Kudoed Authors