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Excel Binary file support

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Krati Singh on 08 Feb 2016 02:25:42

Excel binary file .xlsb as a data source works well for few query steps but starts crashing soon with error as "External file format not supported". Please enable excel binary file format support or provide an error in the beginning so that query steps are not performed at all.

Comments (25)
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Roderick Dotson on 08 Jul 2022 13:31:23

RE: Excel Binary file support

In large organizations, binary files are being used to house the larger datasets. I use Power BI daily to provide reports and dashboards. Power BI is a powerful tool, and it needs to be able to access these types of files. Voting for you to add that functionality.

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Fabio Antonio Giacomini on 04 Apr 2022 15:00:12

RE: Excel Binary file support

Boa tarde,Favor disponibilizar a opção o mais breve possivél.Contamos com o apoio da Microsoft.

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Graeme Lindley on 15 Jun 2021 07:42:56

RE: Excel Binary file support

Please look to implement this, we use binary excel files as they are actually quicker to download from SharePoint Online, and Power BI happily picks up input data sources from this location without any problems - it would be helpful for PBI to be able to handle excel binary worksheets.

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Warren Kerr on 28 Aug 2020 09:36:06

RE: Excel Binary file support

I can load xlsb into Power BI desktop without issue, but having the source refreshed via schedule on the gateway breaks because the company server (??) likely doesn't have the old MS DB Access Engine installed. I don't want to rename the file to xlsx because it will block embedded macros.

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Iris Fung on 14 Aug 2020 10:37:53

RE: Excel Binary file support

Big data is getting more and more important but the file size is getting larger and larger.
This could help save the power bi file size if we can import data with xlsb excel file to power bi!!

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Power BI User on 06 Jul 2020 00:12:27

RE: Excel Binary file support

This is very important to save on space!

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Wenceslau on 06 Jul 2020 00:03:45

RE: Excel Binary file support

We need to be able to work with xlsb files...

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LA on 05 Jul 2020 23:58:00

RE: Excel Binary file support

Its essential that we have the ability to use excel binary files with BI.

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Anon on 05 Jul 2020 23:42:37

RE: Excel Binary file support

Hello all,
I was having this same issue trying to combine XLSB files, but as a few comments mentioned below I was able to fix this issue by downloading the Microsoft Access Database Engine 2010 Redistributable.exe file from this link: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=13255.

After I downloaded and installed this I was able to load the XLSB files in Power BI.

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Rajender Singh Negi on 05 Jul 2020 23:42:24

RE: Excel Binary file support

Hi, Please enable this feature in Power BI, it will be very useful.