Schedule refresh fails with .xls/.csv files, but works for .xlsx on OneDrive business/SharePoint?

[ar-data]

I have linked data from a folder in onedrive business account using Sharepoint.content and published the report from desktop to online.

My data source is .xls and .csv files. When I schedule refresh/do manual refresh, the refresh failed. When I saved the files as .xlsx, the schedule refresh/manual refresh completed successfully. 

1. Is there any limitation that schedule refresh will not work for .xls/.csv files? 
2. I can use onedrive hourly refresh or power automate flow refresh, but does these havy any such limitations?
3. How can we trigger manual refresh with .xls/.csv files?

Thank you for your assistance.

[ar-data]

Hi,

By route I meant path how my data flow structured.

And for the 2nd point where I had mentioned that we will get onedrive auto refresh option is that as per this article it says that if we use same account for Power BI and Onedrive for business, all the changes will get synced (to files and pbix file) automatically every hour without requiring to setup as schedule refresh as shown below.

Image via this article

But this option was not available for me. I figured that to get this option, we need to upload pbix file via get data option on Power BI web (service) rather than publishing it via Power BI desktop. 

[ar-data]

Hi @ibarrau 

1. Thanks for the response. Currently i"m using the Onedrive business option. As you had mentioned csv is not a problem, does than mean Power BI service can refresh via onedrive business route even if the files are in csv format?
2. When we use onedrive business, we get the Onedrive auto refresh option below the schedule refresh option. But for some reason this is not available for me. Would you happen to know why this may happen?

[ibarrau]

Hiii
1. Like you say, csv is not a problem. I'm not sure what you mean with "route" but sure you can build a Power Bi Dataset connected to data in onedrive only in csv. That won't even need a gateway 🙂
2. I don't know what's going on right there. If all your data is coming from onedrive and it's connected equally, then I thought it would work. There might be something useful here: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/power-bi/connect-data/refresh-csv-file-onedrive

I hope that helps,

[ibarrau]

Hi. Let's see

1- There is a limitation regarding xls. The csv files are not a problem at all. The limitation for the first one is that they need a driver/component to get refresh in Power Bi Service. That makes them a bad solution if you want to refresh directly from a cloud source (like onedrive). You might want to convert xls to xlsx if you want to keep the onedrive solution. Otherwise you might need a gateway with the component. You can read more about it here: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/power-bi/connect-data/desktop-access-database-errors

2- You can configure until 8 refreshes a day with regular free and pro licence. You don't need automate for that. There are schedule refresh settings in the Power Bi Service portal. If you have other licence like premium, ppu or embed, then you can refresh 48 times a day.

3- The manual trigger should be done by a user with more than viewer permission on the workspace at the Power Bi Service. You can also build something by API but that one will count as the 8 times limitation refreshes. The manual refresh in the Service interface won't count for the limitation.

I hope that helps,