Can't connect PowerApps and Power BI to same excel file

[rl_evans]

I'm working on adding a PowerApps tile to a Power BI dashboard where the data source is an excel file.  I found that when I connect PowerApps to the table in excel, PowerApps adds a new column to the table with data in binary format.  I assume that this column is used by PowerApps to uniquely identify each row in the data set.  Regardless, when I try to connect Power BI to this same excel file, Power BI tells me that it can't connect because the table in excel has binary data.

Is there a way around this catch 22?

[Anonymous]

@rl_evans,

Do you directly connect to the Excel file in Power BI Service? If so, how about you use Power BI Desktop to connect to the Excel?

As stated in this article, binary data type column is currently not supported in Power BI, the binary data column will be removed from the resulting table in Power BI Desktop. There is a similar thread for your reference.

In addition, what do you mean that add a PowerApps tile to a Power BI dashboard?

Regards,

[rl_evans · Accepted solution]

I understand that Power BI won't connect to an excel table that has binary data in it.  The question was about the problem of trying to connect Power BI and Power Apps to the same excel table.  The reason for doing this is so that the data in the excel table can be modified by PowerApps and reported upon by Power BI.

I have found my own answer to the problem.  As mentioned before, when you connect PowerApps to an excel table, PowerApps adds a column to the table which Power BI interprets as binary data and subsequently won't connect to the table (btw - neither PBI service or PBI desktop will connect). To fix this, open the excel file, select the column added by PowerApps and format the data type as "text".  After doing this. Power BI will connect to the table and PowerApps continues to work with the table.

Regarding what I meant by adding a PowerApps tile to a Power BI dashboard, see this article.