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Power Platform Community / Forums / Power Automate / Read local excel in Po...
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Read local excel in Power Automate web

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Posted on by 28

Hello everyone,

 

I'm looking for assistance in reading the content of a table from a local excel file and iterating over its rows in Power Automate web. Can anyone provide guidance on how to achieve this?

 

I attempted to save the excel file in my mapped OneDrive folder on the desktop and read it in Power Automate web. However, I encountered an issue where it continues to read the same file even if I replace the local excel file with another one of the same name. Any suggestions on how to overcome this would be greatly appreciated.

 

Thanks!

 
 
 
 
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  • Gdarmon Outlook Profile Picture
    372 on at

    Hi,
    To read the content of a table from a local Excel file and iterate over its rows in Power Automate web,
    you can use the Read from Excel worksheet action.
    This action allows you to retrieve the value of a single cell or a data table.
    Here’s how you can use it:

    To access the local file system in Power Automate, you can use the File System connector1.
    This connector allows you to connect to file systems on your local or network machines to read from and write to
    files using the On-Premises Data Gateway.

    Here are the steps to use the File System connector:

    Add the File System connector to your flow.
    In the File path field, specify the path to the file you want to access.
    In the Username field, enter your Windows username.
    In the Password field, enter your Windows password.
    In the Gateway name field, specify the name of the gateway you want to use.
    Once you have connected to the file system, you can use the Read from file action to read the contents
    of a file and the Create file action to create a new file.

    Add the Read from Excel worksheet action to your flow.
    In the File field, specify the path to the Excel file you want to read.
    In the Worksheet name field, specify the name of the worksheet that contains the table you want to read.
    In the Table name field, specify the name of the table you want to read.
    In the Output field, specify the name of the variable that will store the table data.
    Once you have the table data, you can use the Apply to each action to iterate over its rows and perform any desired operations2.

    Regarding the issue you encountered where Power Automate continues to read the same file even if you replace
    the local Excel file with another one of the same name,
    it could be due to the file being cached by your browser.
    You can try clearing your browser cache and cookies and see if that resolves the issue.

  • Kapil775 Profile Picture
    28 on at

    Hi @DarmonGill ,

     

    We need On Premise Data Gateway for using file system which is a premium feature. Hence I won't be able to use file system. It is mentioned in this post.

     

    I tried clearing browser cache and cookies however unfortunately still the flow is reading the same file.

     

    Thanks,

    Kapil

  • Nived_Nambiar Profile Picture
    18,129 Super User 2025 Season 2 on at

    Hi @Kapil775 

     

    There is one more way you can try , that would be using Power Automate desktop , using excel actions present in it.

     

    Else

     

    Using Onedrive syncing as well you can reading the file, so one question does the file is not properly synced in onedrive so to make the file updated ?

     

    Thanks & Regards,

    Nived N 🚀

    LinkedIn: Nived N's LinkedIn
    YouTube: Nived N's YouTube Channel

    🔍 Found my answer helpful? Please consider marking it as the solution!
    Your appreciation keeps me motivated. Thank you! 🙌

  • Kapil775 Profile Picture
    28 on at

    Hi @Nived_Nambiar ,

     

    Sincere apologies for the delay. I was caught up with other activities and lost track of it. I managed to implement a workaround to the issue and I have updated both below.

     

    Context and Issue
    ******************
    1. I am updating an excel file using Power Automate desktop. This excel file is placed in OneDrive folder in desktop.
    2. This excel file is read by Power Automate cloud flow. This read is successful on the first occasion.
    3. During the second run of PAD flow, it replaces the excel file with a new file having same name and structure.
    4. I am getting error when the cloud flow reads this new excel file. I have to repoint the excel activity in cloud flow to same excel in order to fix the issue.

     

    Resolution
    ************
    I updated the PAD flow to update data in excel file instead of replacing the complete file. This way the cloud flow is able to read the updated data.

     

    Thanks,
    Kapil

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