Unable to read Excel (xlsx) from SFTP in Azure Data Factory

Question

Unable to read Excel (xlsx) from SFTP in Azure Data Factory

Jordi Perreman 46

Hello

Facing currently an issue when trying to read an excel (xlsx) file from a SFTP. The excel is not protected, doesn't have protected worksheets. Doesn't contain a password. (Double, triple checked).

This file is exported by Workday. But it seems like something within ADF/Excel Connector cannot handle this. I've seen some posts back in the days around this issue as well.

No Sensitivity label has been placed.

Error Receiving:

Encrypted excel file 'filename.xlsx' is not supported, please remove its password. Wrong Local header signature: 0x10DD182 (Errorcode 21359)

Smaran Thoomu 23,175 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2025-05-09T10:26:53.7166667+00:00
Hi @Jordi Perreman

Thank you for sharing the details.

The error message:

"Encrypted excel file 'filename.xlsx' is not supported, please remove its password. Wrong Local header signature: 0x10DD182 (Errorcode 21359)"

typically indicates that ADF is unable to read the Excel file because it's either in an unsupported format or not a standard XLSX file, even if it doesn’t have an explicit password.

Here are a few things you can try:

Check Excel File Format:

Some systems (like Workday) export Excel files that aren’t strictly compatible with the Office Open XML standard.

Try opening the file in Excel manually and doing: File → Save As → Excel Workbook (*.xlsx) to re-save it in the proper format.

Then upload this version to the SFTP and test again.

Intermediate Step with Azure Function or Logic App:

If Workday is the only source and you face this issue regularly, consider using a Logic App or Azure Function to:

Download the file from SFTP,

Reprocess or re-save it into a valid XLSX format,

Then pass it to ADF for processing.

Alternative: Use CSV Export (if possible from Workday):

If Workday can export to CSV instead, that’s a more reliable and widely supported format for ADF pipelines.

ADF’s Excel connector does not support encrypted, macro-enabled, or corrupted Excel files. Even without password protection, an incorrect file structure or compression may cause this error.

Let us know if you're able to try these options. If the issue still persists, we can help investigate further.

I hope this information helps. Please do let us know if you have any further queries.

Kindly consider upvoting the comment if the information provided is helpful. This can assist other community members in resolving similar issues.

Accepted answer

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Your answer

Smaran Thoomu 23,175 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2025-05-09T10:26:53.7166667+00:00

Hi @Jordi Perreman

Thank you for sharing the details.

The error message:

"Encrypted excel file 'filename.xlsx' is not supported, please remove its password. Wrong Local header signature: 0x10DD182 (Errorcode 21359)"

typically indicates that ADF is unable to read the Excel file because it's either in an unsupported format or not a standard XLSX file, even if it doesn’t have an explicit password.

Here are a few things you can try:

Check Excel File Format:

Some systems (like Workday) export Excel files that aren’t strictly compatible with the Office Open XML standard.

Try opening the file in Excel manually and doing: File → Save As → Excel Workbook (*.xlsx) to re-save it in the proper format.

Then upload this version to the SFTP and test again.

Intermediate Step with Azure Function or Logic App:

If Workday is the only source and you face this issue regularly, consider using a Logic App or Azure Function to:

Download the file from SFTP,

Reprocess or re-save it into a valid XLSX format,

Then pass it to ADF for processing.

Alternative: Use CSV Export (if possible from Workday):

If Workday can export to CSV instead, that’s a more reliable and widely supported format for ADF pipelines.

ADF’s Excel connector does not support encrypted, macro-enabled, or corrupted Excel files. Even without password protection, an incorrect file structure or compression may cause this error.

Let us know if you're able to try these options. If the issue still persists, we can help investigate further.

I hope this information helps. Please do let us know if you have any further queries.

Kindly consider upvoting the comment if the information provided is helpful. This can assist other community members in resolving similar issues.

Answer 1

Hi @Jordi Perreman
I'm glad that you were able to resolve your issue and thank you for posting your solution so that others experiencing the same thing can easily reference this! Since the Microsoft Q&A community has a policy that "The question author cannot accept their own answer. They can only accept answers by others "I'll repost your solution in case you'd like to accept the answer.

Solution: We opened the Excel file via a Power Automate Flow, we got the pop-up to 'Enable Editing' and accepted it. After this action we resaved the file to the SFTP. Azure Data Factory is able to finally read it.
If I missed anything please let me know and I'd be happy to add it to my answer, or feel free to comment below with any additional information.

If you have any other questions, please let me know. Thank you again for your time and patience throughout this issue.

If this answers your query, do click Accept Answer and Yes for was this answer helpful. And, if you have any further query do let us know.

Answer 2

Jordi Perreman 46

We've further investigated at our side.

We opened the Excel file via an Power Automate Flow, we got the pop-up to 'Enable Editing' and accepted it. After this action we resaved the file to the SFTP. Azure Data Factory is able to finally read it.

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Unable to read Excel (xlsx) from SFTP in Azure Data Factory

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