undefined

[pollenwitcher]

I use Power Query in Excel, and my source data is stored in OneDrive, which is synced to my PC. If I move to another PC, the file path changes and Power Query may no longer detect the source. I also need to share this Excel file with colleagues, and each of them has OneDrive synced to their own PC. How can I set up Power Query so that when I share the Excel file, they won’t need to reconfigure the data source paths manually?

[v-achippa]

Hi @pollenwitcher,

We wanted to kindly follow up to check if the solution provided by the user's for the issue worked?  or let us know if you need any further assistance.

Thanks and regards,

Anjan Kumar Chippa

[audreygerred]

Hi! Rather than using the Excel connector which points to the path on your local machine, I suggest using a connector that points to SharePoint. You can use one of the SharePoint connectors or the Web connector - if you use Web connector you copy the path in Excel that points to OneDrive, then when you paste it in, remove the ?web=1 that always is at the end of the string. This will now make you connected to the cloud instead of your local.

[DataTako]

Hey,

The root of this is that you're pointing Power Query at the local synced path (something like

C:\Users\you\OneDrive - Company...), and that path is different on every machine. The fix is to reference the file by its OneDrive/SharePoint URL instead, so it resolves to the same location for everyone regardless of where their sync folder lives.

Quickest way to get that URL: open the source file, go to File > Info > Copy path. That gives you a URL ending in ?web=1. Delete the ?web=1 part, and use what's left in Power Query.

Then swap your source step to use the URL. For a single workbook, wrap it in Web.Contents:

Excel.Workbook(Web.Contents("https://yourtenant-my.sharepoint.com/personal/.../file.xlsx"), null, true)

If the data lives in a SharePoint document library rather than personal OneDrive, SharePoint.Contents or SharePoint.Files against the site URL is cleaner and behaves the same for every user.

Two things to know before you share:

Everyone needs permission to the source file, and they'll authenticate with their Organizational Account the first time (Data source settings > Edit permissions if it prompts). Once that's set, the path never needs touching again.

This works properly with OneDrive for Business / SharePoint. Personal (consumer) OneDrive is much more awkward to reference by URL, so if this is a work setup, make sure the file sits in OneDrive for Business or a SharePoint library.

Do that and the path stops being machine-dependent, so when colleagues open the shared file they won't have to reconfigure anything.

If this answers your question, please mark it as the solution so others with the same setup find it faster.

Paco
Helping data analytics leaders distribute their reports

[v-achippa]

Hi @pollenwitcher,

Thank you for reaching out to Microsoft Fabric Community.

Thank you @Jai-Rathinavel for the prompt response.

As we haven’t heard back from you, we wanted to kindly follow up to check if the solution provided by the user for the issue worked?  or let us know if you need any further assistance.

Thanks and regards,

Anjan Kumar Chippa

[Jai-Rathinavel]

Hi @pollenwitcher , You can Parameterize the excel folder or file path and include it in your Power Query to make it dynamic. The other users just have to copy paste their local path as an one time activity and refresh the power bi file.
1. Create a Parameter using Manage Parameters option and Provide your excel file path

2. Replace the existing File Path with the new parameter which you have created

Hope this helps.