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Connecting to Excel is giving "You do not have permissions to open this file in the browser"

  • February 16, 2024
  • 67 replies
  • 2113 views

From 15/2/24 17:40 I have started receiving regular alerts for my zaps connecting to online Excel with the message: “You do not have permissions to open this file in the browser”.

Nothing has changed (passwords etc).  I tried turning the zaps off and on again, but now it will not turn on again - I get the notification “Zap could not be switched on” with the same message as above.  When I edit the zap to check the credentials, I can do a test connection and it is successful.

The zaps retrieve new rows from Excel and update MailChimp.  The Microsoft account I am using is the one I used to create the spreadsheet.

I’m not sure where to go from here - it has been working for a few months and nothing has changed.

Best answer by connorz

Hi everyone, 

After an update from Microsoft, we believe this issue is resolved

To get your Zaps working again, please try the following:

  1. Reconnect your Excel account
  2. Re-select the Spreadsheet from from dropdown (and Worksheet if necessary)

 

After following these steps, you should be clear to resume mapping/testing the affected step or to turn the Zap on and run it.

We really appreciate your patience as we’ve worked with Microsoft. If the above does not work and you continue to see errors, please let our Support team know, and we’ll do everything we can to help.

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67 replies

ken.a
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  • Zapier Staff
  • 6301 replies
  • February 19, 2024

Hi there @Gareth Bishop,

Welcome to the Community! 🎉

Before we dig deeper into this, could you please try reconnecting your Microsoft Excel account here: https://zapier.com/app/connections/excel

After that, please publish the Zap again and check if the error will persist.

Kindly give it a try and let me know how it goes? I'll keep an eye out for your response!


  • Author
  • Beginner
  • 4 replies
  • February 20, 2024

Hi @ken.a ,

I have tried reconnecting the Excel account as suggested - it worked fine but when I went to turn the zap on again, it failed with the same error.

I tried going into Excel and specifically sharing the spreadsheet with the user - although the account I am using is the spreadsheet owner, so I can’t see how there would be any permissions issues accessing it.  It still failed with the same error when I tried to turn it on again.

Zapier is listed as an app that I have given access to in Excel, with full read/write/edit/detele permissions and nothing has changed there.

Thanks,

Gareth


  • Author
  • Beginner
  • 4 replies
  • February 20, 2024

I have just tried creating another zap from scratch.  It connects to the Microsoft account ok and I can select the spreadsheet to use.  However the next dropdown is to select which worksheet to use and it can’t find any results:

 


ken.a
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  • Zapier Staff
  • 6301 replies
  • February 21, 2024

Hi there @Gareth Bishop,

Could you please try using the Worksheet ID in the “Worksheet” field as a custom value? You should see the Worksheet ID in the browser URL of the Microsoft Excel app when the desired worksheet is selected.

I'll be keeping an eye out for your response!

 


  • Author
  • Beginner
  • 4 replies
  • February 22, 2024

Unfortunately there is no Worksheet ID in the URL - I selected both worksheets separately in the spreadsheet and copied/pasted the URL but it is identical for both.


  • Author
  • Beginner
  • 4 replies
  • February 22, 2024

Incidentally I did see something when searching for a solution about clearing the browser cache, but this wouldn’t apply as Zapier is not connecting through my browser, but maybe some sort of cache could be cleared on the Zapier side.

I tried removing the Zapier permissions from excel and then reconnecting to the Excel account in Zapier again, which added the permissions back again, but this made no difference.


  • New
  • 1 reply
  • February 25, 2024

I am having the same issue here 


ken.a
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  • Zapier Staff
  • 6301 replies
  • February 27, 2024

Hi friends,

This might be a bug here. I’d recommend reaching out to our Support Team to report this issue and create a bug report on your behalf.

You can reach our Support Team here: https://zapier.com/app/get-help

I appreciate your patience and understanding.


  • New
  • 1 reply
  • March 9, 2024

Hello everyone,

I'm utilizing a Google Apps Script to retrieve data from an Excel file situated in my OneDrive account, and I'm encountering a similar issue.

 

Exception: Request failed for https://graph.microsoft.com returned code 401. Truncated server response: {"error":{"code":"FileOpenUserUnauthorized","message":"You do not have permissions to open this file in the browser.","innerError":{"code":"unautho... (use muteHttpExceptions option to examine full response)


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  • Beginner
  • 16 replies
  • March 18, 2024

Hi,

 

I’ve been having the same problem (“You do not have permissions to open this file in the browser”) on every Zap step that uses Excel - all have worked fine and nothing has changed in any settings and it’s the same for any new Excel account and / or file that I try.

 

Zapier support haven’t been able to resolve it yet.

 

Anyone get theirs working in the end?

 

Thanks,

 

Jon


  • New
  • 4 replies
  • March 19, 2024

Having the same problems, since Saturday, 16th of March. Didn't changed anything in my configurations… :( 


  • New
  • 2 replies
  • March 20, 2024

Same here.  Nothing has changed on my end and suddenly all my zaps started failing.  SO FRUSTRATING!!  


ken.a
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  • Zapier Staff
  • 6301 replies
  • March 21, 2024

Hi friends,

There’s an open bug report regarding the error of "You do not have permissions to open this file in the browser." I have added your contact information to the open bug report. We will keep you updated via email once there’s an update regarding the bug.

I appreciate your patience and understanding.


  • New
  • 1 reply
  • March 24, 2024

I’m having the same issue - with my very firs zap ever! Glad to learn I’m not just technocursed, and there’s a bug here. Looking forward to it being fixed and getting on with my workflow.


ken.a
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  • Zapier Staff
  • 6301 replies
  • March 27, 2024

Hi @Suchness,

I have added you to the open bug report as another affected member. We will keep you in the loop via email once the bug has been fixed.

I appreciate your patience and understanding.


can i also get added to the email updates as i have the exact same issue, also any time frame on the fix would be great as the data entry to the excel sheet sets of a number of other sequences and its a big time grab having to do it all manually. Cheers. 


  • New
  • 1 reply
  • April 22, 2024

i have the same problem, i a new user.

Don’t recogniza Worksheet in Excel file, and have error "You do not have permissions to open this file in the browser."

Thanks for your help


ken.a
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  • Zapier Staff
  • 6301 replies
  • April 23, 2024

Hi @Matthew Stephens and @tocho,

I have added you both to the open bug report. I’m sorry, but we don’t have an exact ETA for the bug’s fix. However, we will keep you updated via email once the bug has been fixed.

I appreciate your patience and understanding.


  • New
  • 2 replies
  • May 8, 2024

Ive got the same issue. Zaps not connecting anymore to Excel, nothing changed, pernissions look fine and getting the error “You do not have permissions to open this file in the browser”.

 

This has killed my whole workflow for the company and is the only reason I subscribed to Zapier. Please fix asap! Are there any workarounds?


kiwi_pete wrote:

Ive got the same issue. Zaps not connecting anymore to Excel, nothing changed, pernissions look fine and getting the error “You do not have permissions to open this file in the browser”.

 

This has killed my whole workflow for the company and is the only reason I subscribed to Zapier. Please fix asap! Are there any workarounds?

I am in the same boat; it was the main reason our business got the subscription. I've found that it does work relatively the same with google sheets (but not exactly) you just set it up the same way as you would with excel but with sheets (personally this was not ideal us because we need it in excel for other reasons but it does work). 

Also just want to let you know, there’s been no updates from the open bug report on this issue yet.


  • New
  • 2 replies
  • May 8, 2024

OK thanks. Yes I’m actually looking to convert to sheets now.


ken.a
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  • Zapier Staff
  • 6301 replies
  • May 8, 2024

Hi @kiwi_pete,

I have added you as another affected member to the open bug report. We will keep you updated via email once the bug has been fixed.

Unfortunately, there are no workaround other than using Google Sheets as the alternative for now.

I appreciate your patience and understanding.

 


ken.a wrote:

Hi @kiwi_pete,

I have added you as another affected member to the open bug report. We will keep you updated via email once the bug has been fixed.

Unfortunately, there are no workaround other than using Google Sheets as the alternative for now.

I appreciate your patience and understanding.

 

Any Update??


ken.a
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  • Zapier Staff
  • 6301 replies
  • May 16, 2024

Hi @merlineast,

Unfortunately, the bug report is still open. Rest assured that you will receive an email notification once the bug has been fixed.

I appreciate your patience and understanding.


  • New
  • 1 reply
  • May 23, 2024

Same error with Excel here. I have multiple zaps running that updates excel sheets and since today it cannot connect anymore with my excel file. Any eta on this bug fix?