Activating Power Query Editor in Excel for Mac

Question

According to this Microsoft Support page and various third party sources, Excel for Mac users should be able to activate Power Query Editor assuming they have opted into the Office Insider Program. I have followed these instructions to opt into the Insider program by setting my Update Channel to Beta, which apparently should enable me to download the additional features to activate Power Query Editor. However, after running Microsoft AutoUpdate, it says that Excel is fully up-to-date on my computer and there are no options for me to download these additional features.

Is anyone else running Excel for Mac experiencing similar issues? Has anyone found a solution?

I am running Microsoft Excel version 16.62. I have the most up-to-date version of Mac OS. According to all Microsoft documentation on this topic, I should be able to access these features, so I'm not sure what's going wrong.

Answer 1

Hi,
I have the same issue.

Originally I tried to import a csv file and transform some of the columns. But I don't see the option to launch the Power query editor.
When try to import the csv file via the Option "Get Data(Gower Query)" the step the button "Transform data" is not shown. there is only the Button "Load"
I also tried it with a very simple xlsx file with 2 rows and 3 columns to test if it was an issue with the file, but got the same result.

I am currently on the beta channel and have version 16.65 installed.
I also have a Microsoft 365 subscription.

Hope you can help.

Answer 2

Hi

This is the wrong forum for discussion the beta builds. Please re-post your questions and comments about beta builds here: https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/officeinsider/forum

Thanks!

Answer 3

Hi,

I changed to version 16.65 from 16.64 on the normal update channel because it didn't work on version 16.64. I read this article that says i have to join the insider program. So I did that and updated to the newest version.

I can revert to 16.64 tomorrow when I am at work again if you want, as I only updated to 16.65 to get Power Query working.

Thanks.

Answer 4

Hi,
I'm now on version 16.64 again.

I also tried to install Office with a downloaded install package from Microsoft instead from our company self-service app.
With that it worked one time. I could see the "Transform Data" Button. What I also noticed is when pressed the "Get Data(Power Query)" there were a lot more Data source options than before. I think it was 6 instead of 2.
Normaly the data source options were .xlsx and Text/CSV.

To check if the problem was the install package from our self-service app I uninstalled Office and reinstalled through our self-service app.
There I had the same issues as before with Power Query.
Then I uninstalled Office again and installed the downloaded install package from Microsoft but this time the issue with Power Query is still present.

After that I tried to uninstall and reinstall the different packages but the issue still persists.

Hope you can help.

Answer 5

Hi

As you have discovered, when a new feature is introduced it is sometimes available and sometimes not. Your experiment covers a lot of ground. If you want to pay close attention to the various builds, look at the number following the version number. For example, in your most recent screen shot you have version 16.64 (2208141)

The number in parentheses is the date. In your example, August 14, 2022 build 1.

16.64 current channel builds delivered by Microsoft servers and Apple servers are slightly different. Builds delivered by the Apple store can not be used to join the beta channel.

You could easily have multiple machines all with the exact same beta channel build, but each presenting a different combination of features. Microsoft uses control groups to compare behavior of various things they're testing at any given moment. Microsoft wants feedback from beta testers using the Help menu's Feedback options. The feedback should be about the specific build and Mac on which the report is being made.

Questions and comments about the beta channel should be made in the special forum for beta channel users: https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/officeinsider/forum

The forum we're in right now is reserved for topics on the general release current channel builds.