Accessing Excel file on OneDrive for Power BI report

[dherman201]

I've seen multiple tutorials  and video's where accessing and Excel file on OneDrive for Business for a Power BI report seems to work fine.   I must be missing something.

I use the Get Data / select Web and copy the link to the One Drive excel file.  I get the error "Web.BrowserContents currently supports only anonymous credentials".

The organization does require Microsoft authenticator to connect.  Could that have anything to do with this error?

Thanks in advance.

Deb

[v-deddai1-msft]

Hi @dherman201 ,

>> It seems however you need to connect to the root of the SharePoint site or at least to the root of your one drive.

It's by design that we need to use site URL when we connect to files in sharepoint. We can control the access for the file in sharepoint. Please refer to https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/share-sharepoint-files-or-folders-1fe37332-0f9a-4719-970e...

Here is offical document for connecting to sharepoint  https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/power-query/connectors/sharepointfolder

If this post helps, then please consider Accept it as the solution to help the other members find it more quickly.

Best Regards,

Dedmon Dai

[v-deddai1-msft]

Hi @dherman201 ,

It's a limitation now. The new version of the Web connector (currently available in Power BI Desktop) automatically creates a Web.BrowserContents query. Such queries currently only support anonymous authentication. In other words, the new Web connector can't be used to connect to a source that requires non-anonymous authentication. This limitation applies to the Web.BrowserContents function, regardless of the host environment.

If this post helps, then please consider Accept it as the solution to help the other members find it more quickly.

Best Regards,

Dedmon Dai

[dherman201]

Thanks for the info.  So, it appears this works if you use the SharePoint connector rather than the web connector.   When I tried, it prompted me to log in in Power BI.

However, I found this worked in my environment but did not work for another user in their environment. I'm assuming it would be dependent on the security set up within the SharePoint site?  

It seems however you need to connect to the root of the SharePoint site or at least to the root of your one drive.
so for example I had to use

my.sharepoint.com/personal/myname_mycompany_com/
  I'm not really sure what this URL means as to the whole sharepoint implementation.  What is the best practice?    If  a user has access to their One Drive what would limit them to access from Power BI.    I belive the error posted is "Access is forbidden"

Thanks for your help.  Trying to sort this out.

[StefanoGrimaldi]

hey,

normally if you entering correctly your credentials ange getting this type of error, try entering the root url to the onedrive instead of the specific folder, sometimes the direct folder fails to connect, giving access to the root solves that,

if this helped please give some kudos, if this solved your question please mark as solved. 

[dherman201]

I finally got it.  I had to access it as a Sharepoint folder not as web connection.  Most of the instruction I saw said to use Get Data / Web.  When I used Sharepoint folder,  then it asked me to login.  Thanks for responding.