Answered

PAD fails to read all cells from Excel

(0) Share

Report

Posted on by dkdhaht

Hi,

After the last update of PAD 2.18.146.22083, PAD can no longer read from Excel by use of the setting "Read all avaliable values from worksheet". This worked perfect in the former version of PAD. Now I get "Failed to read cell value(s)".

Anyone that experiences the same? Any solutions?

Cheers,

DBH

Categories:

Power Automate Desktop

I have the same question (0)

All responses (7)

Answers (1)

Sort by

VJR 7,635 on at

Like
a
(0)

Report
Copy link

Link copied!

@dkdhaht

Just checked on 2.18 and the action did correctly read the Excel data without showing any error.

Could you share some details about your issue with screenshots of the process, input parameters, etc.

I know it worked in previous versions but double check the parameters, Excel instance, file path, extension, etc.

Was this reply helpful? Yes No
Riyaz_riz11 4,214 Super User 2026 Season 1 on at

Like
a
(1)

Report
Copy link

Link copied!

Hi @dkdhaht ,

Even i was checked from my end as well it was working for me. Can you please check with excel instance , path and all.

Regards

Ahammad Riyaz

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
If this post helps answer your question, please click on “Accept as Solution” to help other members find it more quickly. If you thought this post was helpful, please give it a Thumbs Up.

Was this reply helpful? Yes No
dkdhaht 22 on at

Like
a
(0)

Report
Copy link

Link copied!

I've double- and triple checked path, instances and everything else. No changes to the Excel-file or path. The weird thing is that the same flow, which is shared, works on another machine (same PAD-version) and has no problems reading the Excel-file. I even tried to clean and reinstall Office 365 on the "problem-machine", but with the same read-error. I wonder if this problem could arise due to some application-cache-issues on windows? Here are some screenshots.

Was this reply helpful? Yes No
VJR 7,635 on at

Like
a
(0)

Report
Copy link

Link copied!

Is K: drive a mapped network drive?

It must be mapped using another letter on your machine and hence not working.

Use network path in the format

\\server\share\....

Was this reply helpful? Yes No
dkdhaht 22 on at

Like
a
(0)

Report
Copy link

Link copied!

Yes K: is a network drive, but the Excel file on the drive opens fine using the path, it is the read all cells command that fails.

Was this reply helpful? Yes No
VJR 7,635 on at

Like
a
(0)

Report
Copy link

Link copied!

i. temporarily place the same file on C:\ and check "Read all cells.

ii. Use file on K: drive and use network path format (\\server\share\....) and check "Read all cells"

Trying these two options will pinpoint where the error actually is.

We do not know what is the code behind the PAD "Read all cells" action.

Was this reply helpful? Yes No
Verified answer

dkdhaht 22 on at

Like
a
(0)

Report
Copy link

Link copied!

Hi, thanks for your replies,
I found out that it is not the path which is the problem. The problem, seems to be the data that I have in the cells. I use the cells in a row to hold regex-strings for searching and clearing user input data. The cells in Excel are formatted as text (e.g. a cell could be: "((^ZCPR$)|(^ZCVR$)|(^ZEPNR$)|(^$))"). For some reason PAD won't read these regex-strings from Excel. If I remove the strings, the problem disappears and I can read all cells just fine. I think the PAD-motor uses regex internally to check variables etc. Maybe that's what causes some trouble. I don't know. Anyway, I solved the problem by using a csv-file holding the regex-strings instead of Excel - no problem reading from csv.

Was this reply helpful? Yes No