Getting error "We don't support reading encrypted workbooks." while refreshing dataset

[Thanh-Son]

Hello,

I have a dataset that takes data from multiple Excel files in a Sharepoint folder. Recently I'm not able to refresh it as I get the following error message

"We don't support reading encrypted workbooks."

When i download the pbix file and run the refresh on PowerBI Desktop it works fine but then i upload back to PowerBi online and rerun the refresh I still get the same error.

Also tried to remove the latest excel files and I still get the same error.

Thanks in advance for your help

----------- EDIT 30/11 -------------

So I think I got the root cause, the error message means what it means, I did a test with a file without any Sensivity/Encryption and the data refresh worked.

My guess is that there were a update in PowerBI Service (I don't how that works, maybe it's at my organization level) that made those data refresh not supporting encrypted excel files anymore. My PowerBI desktop app was updated yesterday and I couldn't anymore refresh my data for the same reason which make me think the Service and App update is indeed the root cause. 

[Anonymous]

Hi  @Thanh-Son ,

It seems that Power Bi desktop doesn't support to fetch data from password protected Excel file. Here is an idea you could click to vote it up.

As a workaround, you could remove passsword and instead, move the files to a secure folder that limited people have access to.
Reference: power query accessing password protected workbook

Solved: Using an Excel Workbook protected by Information R... - Microsoft Power BI Community

Power BI Issue Fix: Import from Excel Workbook Contents; Password Protection Failure - RADACAD

Best Regards,

Liu Yang

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

[Thanh-Son]

Thx for the answer,

Actually on PBI desktop, the resfresh is working fine, it's when i tried to refresh it directly on app.powerbi.com.

The excel are not protected by password, so I don't think the issue is here.

And everything was working fine until recently this week but the error "We don't support reading encrypted workbooks." doesnt help me to understand and pinpoint what went wrong in the data refresh.