Error when refreshing Query and Data on Excel 365

Question

Good afternoon,

I have an excel file on excel 365 (online version) which I use to extract data using the Forms application for business purposes. I do not know if there is any correlation, but usually, when I have to work on the excel file I log in to my excel 365 account and work in the excel file via the "Desktop" and not via the "Browser". Last night I worked on the excel file via desktop for a couple of hours without closing the application. I then closed my MAC logged back in and resumed working on the desktop file hours later. When I finished my work I close all tabs. Today I open my excel 365 account open the excel file via "Browser" and it says the following:

"Be Careful. This workbook contains one or more queries that might be unsafe"

I click "Yes", and then it says

"Sorry, something went wrong"

"Could you please try that again?"

"Error ID: 125bxxxx-105e-4f32-9xx8-fb55051xxxx, 2021-12-31 18:24:39Z"

I do not what to do and this issue is causing problems on my business! Please HELP!

Thank you.

Luis

Answer 1

Hi Luis,

Happy new year, have a great year ahead!

Based on your post, I tested on my end and encountered the similar situation. When refreshing the external data in Excel for the web, initially I received error "Be Careful. This workbook contains one or more queries that might be unsafe" when clicked “Yes”, it said “External data refresh failed- We were unable to refresh one or more data connections……..”.

Depending on how your environment is configured, data refresh might not occur. For example, if you created a workbook that uses secure, external data connections, those data connections will probably not work in Excel for the web. If you run into a situation where you can’t refresh the data in a browser window, please try opening the workbook in Excel.

On Microsoft 365, you can work with the PivotTable, but you won’t be able to use the Data >Refresh to update its data. You’ll get an External Data Refresh Failed error message, along with the name and location of the connection that failed to refresh.

In this scenario, to refresh the data, open all the workbooks (source and destination) in Excel desktop application and try refreshing the data, check if this gives the error.

We appreciate your understanding and co-operation.

Kind regards.

Neha