Excel Online/Excel Workbook Will Not Display in PowerBI as of 3/24/23

[Matthew_753]

I've been updating apps that contain and use Excel workbooks for years now - all of a sudden last night, I'm getting this error:

Can't open your workbook

Power BI can't open your workbook. Try opening it in Excel Online, or try again later.

Please try again later or contact support. If you contact support, please provide these details.

Did something change? I'm heavily reliant on our team accessing workbooks in Power BI in Teams or a browser - this is the first I've seen this pop up and not load. It opens in Excel online (is in fact .xlsx, no password, not locked down, etc.) It's just an excel workbook in a Workspace that I've published into an app - that has been accessible for 5 years now. All of a sudden it can't be viewed - is there something I need to do differently?

[v-yiruan-msft]

Hi  @Matthew_753,

Please review the following blog, hope its solution can help you resolve your problem.

We’re Sorry, Can’t Open The Workbook in The Browser (Excel): Fixed (windowsreport.com)

• 1. Try with a different browser
• 2. Remove #Ref! errors
• 3. Turn on Sharing
• 4. Edit a copy instead of the original file

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Best Regards

[Matthew_753]

Hi - thank you for the suggestion. Unfortunately I get the same issue whether I do it in Chrome, Edge, a browser or Teams itself. It seems to be Excel online and has all the characteristics of something having changed on the backend with PowerBI and Excel online.

[pinkyn0se]

I take it you got nowhere with this? We have the same problem. Sometimes they will open, sometimes they won't. We've tried different browsers etc. too. It's pretty amazing huh that Power BI support have no idea what we mean 🙂 

[v-yiruan-msft]

Hi @Matthew_753 ,

As reviewed your description, the problem occurred at updating the app. Please check the contents which includes in the app first. Then try to find the report which connect to the excel workbook. Before we can connect to the online excel in Service, please find the details in this blog. But currently it can only use the following two sources to create the report in Service, and it seems that the report(s) created in Power BI Service directly. Please try to replicate these report(s) using the proper online excel sources in Power BI Desktop and pulish to Service using the same report name. Later check if the app can be updated successfully...

Best Regards