Looking to Refresh an Excel workbook in a SharePoint Online DocLib

[apayze]

Hi,

I have a wish to refresh the Excel Data connection, without having to have the user open the Excel File everytime.  I have created a SharePoint page to display the content, but Excel does not refresh the data unless the file is open.  I was wondering if a Flow could be built to refresh the Excel workbook data connection

Regards

Andrew Payze

[v-monli-msft]

Hi Andrew,

May I know how do you want to update the data in the excel file? In flow, if you want to update a file stored on SharePoint online library, you need to use the action "SharePoint - Update File".

Regards,

Mona

[ahildebrandt]

I actually have this same question. I have Power Queries that refresh the file when it is opened. I'd like to open the file, let the file run through the refresh of those queries, save it and close it.  Is that possible?

[Dodge]

Hello?  Anybody in Microsoft Flow reading these things?  An answer of some sort would be helpful here and not having to wait months or years to get a negative or positive response from the team would be really appreciated.  C'mon guys!

[Anonymous]

Not possible as far as I've seen, but here are a couple of ideas to vote on:

https://powerusers.microsoft.com/t5/Flow-Ideas/Action-to-Refresh-Excel-Tables-Connections/idi-p/1013...

https://powerusers.microsoft.com/t5/Flow-Ideas/Refresh-Power-Query-connections-in-an-Excel-file/idi-...

[cwitts]

Hi there

I am trying to do this as wel, but want it to update an excel doc on the same sharepoint.

I have set up the flow and it runs, but when I go to open the excel document it says the file is corrupted?

Any ideas why this may be?

Thanks

[rebeccas]

You can do this but doing 'Get file content' and then 'Update file' with either SharePoint or OneDrive and it will open and refresh the file.

[J_K_]

@rebeccas : could you please elaborate on how you use these two actions?

I tried the following, but it does not refresh my query unfortunately, only modifies the time stamp of the file.

[rebeccas]

@J_K_ 

I have two similar but different Flows I run for this..I'm not sure your exact need.

One is an excel spread sheet that is pulling data from sql. It is looking for only items that have been added to a sql table in the last day and list them here. it has selected in the Excel connection settings both "Refresh data when opening the file" and "Refresh this connection on Refresh All". For the flow I have 'Get file content' and then 'List rows present in a table'...and then it does a condition and  'Create an item'...because it is adding new items that are not already on my SPList.

The other is an excel spread sheet that has a few tied fields (LookUps) so it has the same connection settings in excel but the flow is different.  The flow just has my trigger and 'Get file content' and then 'Update file'. We have a few things that pull information from this spread sheet (PowerApp & PowerBi) and so we need it to refresh at least once a day. This one I don't need my Flow to pull out any data, just refresh the data and that is what it does.

Hope this helps.

[J_K_]

Hi @rebeccas 

thank you for your reply.

I think what I am trying to do is your second example. I have a data query in the Excel file to a txt file which is an extract from a database that gets updated daily.

The Excel table that gets created from the query is pulled from a flow that populates a SharePoint list which we use as data source in PowerApps. (Using the Excel table directly in PowerApps crashed the refresh of the data query)

Could you maybe provide a screenshot of your second example? I need the flow to refresh the data query but can't get it to work.

[rebeccas]

@J_K_ 

Yeah, it is pretty simple one. I have a few things tied to this excel sheet so I have it set to refresh each morning. I went ahead and ran it to show you it updates the last modified after the Flow runs. It also updates the data on everything that is pulling from this. 

Here is the before and after of the modified (I ran it a few minutes apart) showing you it is "modifying" it which is really just refreshing the data. 

And then here is the Flow:

Let me know if you have any other questions on this that I can possibly help with.

[Dodge]

Thanks for that info Rebeccas.  That's the kind of response I would hope to see from Microsoft regarding the usage of one of their threshold products.  Glad someone was able to respond properly after 2 and 1/2 years.

[J_K_]

Hi @rebeccas sorry to bother you again.

As I see it, I have created exactly the same flow.

Get file content,

update file for the same file using the dynamic content "file content" from the previous step.

Also, as you pointed out in your initial response, I have adjusted the Excel connection settings accordingly:

Do you have any further ideas what could make the difference?

[rebeccas]

@J_K_ 

Not off hand. Is it just not updating it or are you getting an actuall error for your Flow?

[J_K_]

@rebeccas The flow completes successfully and the time stamp of the Excel file is indeed modified. But when I pull the data from the Excel table that gets created from the data query, it doesn't show the new entries.

[rebeccas]

@J_K_ 

What do you have that is looking at that data? I am thinking that may be the issue.

I have three different things that look at my excel sheet. A PowerApp (which is refreshing the data), a PowerBi (which is refreshing the data) and another Excel spread sheet with LookUps that is looking at this one (which basically looks up the values when you open it so it is refreshing the data in a sense). 

[J_K_]

@rebeccas I'm looking at the data with another Excel file. But I created this merely to check if the refresh has been completed successfully. I don't know how this could prevent the refresh from happening.

the actual data flow is like this:

1. txt file (extract from database is provisioned daily)

2. Excel file with data query to the txt file resulting in an Excel table

3. A flow to refresh the data query and then pull the data and update/create items in a SharePoint list.

I don't really understand how PowerApps and Power BI refresh the Excel. I found that the refresh in the Excel file was actually prevented when the Excel file is used by PowerApps as data source.

[rebeccas]

@J_K_ 

You can't Refresh() in the app for excel..I mean it Refreshes when you open the app. 

Mine the data is only refreshed once a day by my Flow and that particular information will not change throughout the day. I am referring to it as a look up field in my App.

If you are doing any of this with a PowerApp and you want current accurate data that changes often I would suggest a SharePoint list Excel is not good for that. Excel and PowerApps are not friends!

Mine works fine for what I need but I do consider it to be a temporary fix and will move that data into a sharepoint list as soon as I can finish getting everyone on-board.

Only other thing I can think of is maybe other settings in Excel that I didn't think of that were already set on mine. For example...if it were one where you have click "enable content" everytime then the flow most likely won't account for that. You can change some Excel settings to avoid that...I think in the Trust Center.

I'm out of practice on Excel these days...I very rarely use it anymore. 

[J_K_]

@rebeccas Okay, thanks for your answer. So do I understand you correctly? You always open the Excel file manually once a day?

This is what I wanted to avoid and let Flow do instead.

I also try to avoid Excel but in this case, since we don't have direct access to the database but only the txt file extract, I am using Excel as a workaround to get the data into SharePoint. I am NOT using Excel with PowerApps directly.

[JRGL]

Try unchecking the enable background refresh.