Setting Privacy Settings in a Shared Excel File with Database Connection

Hi Chris,

What you’re experiencing is actually by design in Power Query.

Power Query does not store privacy levels inside the Excel file. They are stored per user, per machine in the local Power Query credential and privacy store (within the user’s Windows profile). That’s why:

• Each user is prompted the first time

• Read-only users are prompted every time

• Saving the file does not carry the privacy settings to other users

This is a security boundary in Microsoft’s architecture — otherwise one user could weaken another user’s data-isolation rules.

So to answer your questions directly:

1) Can I force or lock privacy settings in a centrally stored Excel file?
No. There is no supported way to centrally enforce Power Query privacy levels via the workbook, SharePoint, or OneDrive.

2) Where are the settings stored?
They are stored locally per user in the Power Query credential/permission store (encrypted, under the user’s Windows profile and registry), not in the Excel file.

What you can do:
For enterprise scenarios like yours (on-prem DB, controlled network, many users), Microsoft provides a supported option to disable privacy checks via Excel Trust Center or Group Policy (“Ignore Privacy Levels”). This removes the prompts entirely and is the only scalable solution when you don’t want per-user configuration.

That’s exactly the scenario that setting was designed for.