Refreshing External Connections In Power Query

[Mischief63]

I set up external connections to excel workbooks to load data into power query (went fine).

I decide to test the refresh feature by changing some things in the source data.

It won't refresh -ever. Any idea what he problem is. What's the point of having a refresh feature if the connection breaks every time you change the data?

PS I've always used power query to load data, but needed to setup something simpler that co-workers could use. Thought this would be the solution.

Any thoughts would be much appreciated.

 

[SpillerBD]

It all depends...
If you change a key value your Query is looking for and then make it unavailable or not seen by the Query, you will break the Query. If you use a File Import, you cannot change the file name or location, unless you utilize a function to provide that input.

I am currently relying on consistency to work with Excel files exported from an ERP system. However, I know I have several chapters in Gil Raviv's book to study to see how to make a Query more robust in dealing with inconsistent columns, sheet names or table names. I prefer TXT as Tab Separated Values.
Have done about 80 Excel files using a folder import.