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Editorial Team
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Asked: 2026-05-31T11:06:33+00:00

I have an excel file that uses a web query to pull in data.

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I have an excel file that uses a web query to pull in data. I can view it and refresh it fine locally in Excel 2010.

I upload it to SharePoint 2010 and can view the data in the spreadsheet in the browser using Excel Services. However, when I click to refresh the data in the spreadsheet in the browser (clicking Data > Refresh All), the data does not get refreshed. One thing to note is that when I do open up the excel spreadsheet in the browser it shows this message:

enter image description here

You can see it mentions “Web Queries”. It also mentions “external data queries” can only be refreshed in the client version. I can refresh ODC file connections to sql server just fine in Excel Services, aren’t those “external data queries”?

I guess the basic question is this…

Can you refresh a web query in Excel Services, if so, then how… if not… do you have a supporting link explaining why? (because I’m having a heck of a time finding one)

Thanks in advance.

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1 Answer

  1. Editorial Team

    OK, I don’t think it’s possible or supported. The reason is not only because I cannot get it to refresh even when setting the cache time for Excel Services to 0, but also because the data connection information gets stripped off when uploading the file to SharePoint.

    Let me explain…

    If you create a spreadsheet locally and add a web query, you can refresh it no problem. If you crack open the XML for the spreadsheet (you can do this by just giving the Excel file a .zip extension and then opening it) and browse to the “xl” folder you will see a connections.xml file. This is where Excel stores the external data connection information.

    Now, when you upload that spreadsheet to SharePoint and view it in Excel Services, you have the option to save it as a file. Go ahead and do that and then peek inside the file again and you will see there is no longer a connections.xml file (as it seems Excel Services/SharePoint has stripped it off). My guess is that this is done due to it not being supported and also not wanting issues to arise when refresh is done in Excel Services, but that is only a guess. With other data connections such as an .odc file or OLE DB connection, the connections.xml is retained.

    Anyhow, hopefully this helps someone else who may run into this.

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