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

  • 16 February 2024
  • 60 replies
  • 1444 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.

60 replies

tomo

This is a joke

This bug is messing up my automation for many months already. Had to do task manually, which can cause errors.

I am behind some of my admin tasks because of it.

The reply is the same, and has not changed for months. One of the most popular software, and widely used is completely ignored. My guess: the paid add-on of Tables they want you to use as much as possible instead of excel.

Zapier support is taking a right on pi$$ with this. And not only with this one. NONE of the bugs I reported has been resolved.

Shame on you Zapier. Tech support : 0-10!

I have already scaled down my integrations using Zapier and will be looking to migrate to a different integration software.

 

SamB
Rank
Userlevel 7
Badge +11

Hi @tomo 👋

Thanks for taking the time to share this candid feedback with us. I’m sorry the Support you’ve had on this so far has not been as good as it should have been. I’ve passed your comments here over to the relevant teams so that we can improve upon the information and communications shared regarding bugs in future. I can see that the Support team have already added you to the bug so we’ll definitely reach out to you, and everyone else who’s being affected by this, as soon as it’s been resolved on Microsoft’s end.

To clarify, we are not in any way trying to push folks towards using a paid add-on for Zapier Tables. This issue is not exclusive to Zapier. Microsoft’s own API needs to be fixed in order for the Microsoft app integration that uses it to resume working correctly, unfortunately this isn’t something we can fix from our side. 

I understand how frustrating this must be for everyone here and I would recommend setting up an interim workaround of moving a copy of your affected Excel workbooks over to a different spreadsheet app and use the alternative app instead for the time being. Then later once the issue has been resolved you can move back to using Excel. We have a number of different spreadsheet apps available (doesn’t have to be Zapier Tables!) which you can view here: https://zapier.com/apps/categories/spreadsheets. I do hope that helps to get your workflows up and running again in the meantime.


Thanks for everyone's ongoing patience and understanding on this. As soon as we get any updates on the situation I’ll be sure to let you all know here!

C
Userlevel 3
Badge +7

Hi everyone,

Connor from Zapier’s Support Engineering team here. I apologize for the sparse updates, and I really appreciate your patience we as we’ve dug into this.

As @SamB mentioned above, this issue is not limited to Zapier and its cause looks to be a change on Microsoft’s end, apparently related to the account on which the worksheet is stored—specifically consumer OneDrive accounts.

At this time we’re unable offer an ETA on the resolution. However, we are working with Microsoft to better understand the issue and the path forward.

Here is the most recent update from Microsoft:

We are working on a mitigation but unfortunately have no timelines to share at this point.
According to our investigation, this issue only happens for Workbooks stored in OneDrive Consumer platform. Please note Workbooks stored in OneDrive Consumer platform are not officially supported by Excel Graph...We recommend you to use Excel workbooks stored in OneDrive for Business, SharePoint site or Group drive if you would like use Excel Graph with full support.

If you’re currently experiencing this error with a OneDrive Business account, Group drive, or Sharepoint account, please let our Support team know.

We appreciate your understanding, and we’ll continue to do everything we can to push for a solution here. We will keep this thread updated with more information as we receive it.

N
Userlevel 1

UGH. Seeing that this has been an issue for months and is still unresolved is maddening. It stopped working for me today, randomly. Please add me to the list to be notified when it is fixed, but in the meantime I’ll need to look into alternatives to Zapier because my livelihood depends on this working. 

SamB
Rank
Userlevel 7
Badge +11

Sorry you’re also being affected by this @natesheets. I’ve added you to the bug report as well so that we can notify you once it’s been resolved.

As has been mentioned earlier in this thread this issue is not limited to Zapier, and appears to be caused by a change on Microsoft’s end that’s surfacing these errors for workbooks on consumer OneDrive accounts.

However, as Connor mentioned, if you’re seeing these errors with workbooks stored on a OneDrive Business account, Group drive, or Sharepoint account please can you reach out directly to our Support team here to flag this. That will allow them to obtain the error logs for your affected Zaps so we can share these with the Microsoft team for further investigation.

C
Userlevel 3
Badge +7

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.

R
Userlevel 1
Badge

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.

It doesn’t work for me

 

Still no forlder/sheet available and the connection works fine

 

SamB
Rank
Userlevel 7
Badge +11

Sorry to hear it’s not working still @restigian. Looking at the screenshot you sent it doesn’t appear that your Microsoft Excel account was reconnected. It looks like it’s using the same account connection that was added a month ago:
324f709c8f770545f88a4e2eb11834e5.png
Can you reconnect your Microsoft Excel account and then try re-selecting the spreadsheet and worksheet in the Zap?

Keen to ensure you’re all set here so please keep us updated on how that goes! 

B

I am having the same issues and I have reconnected multiple times and even tried a different Microsoft account but it still does not work, please add me to the list for the bug as well, thank you!

SamB
Rank
Userlevel 7
Badge +11

Hi there @Bestbooks 👋

The bug report has been closed so I’m unable to add you to it. I’d recommend contacting our Support Team here to have them investigate this further. They’ll be able to dig into the logs for your account and determine whether the issue has since resurfaced or if there’s a separate issue affecting your account from being connected.

Please do keep us in the loop on how you get on with them.

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