Power BI-Get Data-Access Database will not find Union queries

[Russ]

Having no luck getting Power BI to import Access Union queries. They do not show up in the navigator preview.

A simple workround is to create a new Select query in Access with all fields from the Union query.

Any idea as to what may be causing this problem?

[v-qiuyu-msft · Accepted solution]

Hi @Russ,

I can reproduce the issue on my side, the created union query in Access database cann't be imported to desktop. I already reported this issue internally and will back if I get any feedback.

Meanwhile, you can also perform Union action after tables are imported to the desktop. The Append Queries feature in Query Designer is same as the union query in Access. For more information, see: Shape and combine data in Power BI Desktop.

Best Regards,
Qiuyun Yu

[snhoe]

This issue is not solved.  Use of Union queries is sometimes to get past MS Access file size limitations, which are still at 2GB (theorectical, 1.7GB real life).  Using a union query allows combining tables that need to be separate into a larger data set that cannot itself fit inside the MS Access file.  It is also used in cases where the union query is joining tables from two different MS Access databases.

So, the workaround to stored the output of the union in a table is not a workaround.

[v-haibl-msft · Accepted solution]

@Russ

Power BI lists all of the tables returned by the "ACE" library, and these union tables are for some reason not among the results. ACE is not under active development, and the product team who owns that library has known of this gap. Now you can use the workaround provided by Qiuyun.

Best Regards,

Herbert

[v-qiuyu-msft · Accepted solution]

Hi @Russ,

I can reproduce the issue on my side, the created union query in Access database cann't be imported to desktop. I already reported this issue internally and will back if I get any feedback.

Meanwhile, you can also perform Union action after tables are imported to the desktop. The Append Queries feature in Query Designer is same as the union query in Access. For more information, see: Shape and combine data in Power BI Desktop.

Best Regards,
Qiuyun Yu

[Russ]

Many thanks for the replies and thanks for reporting this issue. Good to know it's not an isolated issue. Hopefully, it will be resolved.