Why is Power BI no longer reading 'Published To Web' Google Sheets properly?

Question

Why is Power BI no longer reading 'Published To Web' Google Sheets properly?

Cary Carr 20

As of August 1st, none of the connections that I had in Power BI that were looking at Google Sheets via the 'Publish to Web' URLs are working. The issue seems to be that the Power Query web connector sees the header of the report title, but not the actual content of the published web page.

For example, when I try to link to the following test page using the 'Web Connector': https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/e/2PACX-1vSa8wC8gKcRb7Ac45llfvGWti0LWO88t_TMy1MRPUo1PTSUxDg0gtsTXTXEvbELcOG4eVIN3_aMc9vW/pubhtml?gid=0&single=true

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This is what I end up seeing:

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Does anyone have any insight into why this happened?

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Answer 1

Emmanuel Santana 24,230 Independent Advisor

Hi Cary. Google recently changed how its “Publish to Web” output works for Google Sheets. Power BI’s Web connector depends on reading static HTML tables, but as of August 2025, the /pubhtml URL no longer provides the table data in a format Power BI can detect.

To fix it, you’ll need to switch your link from this:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/e/2PACX-1vSa8wC8gKcRb7Ac45llfvGWti0LWO88t_TMy1MRPUo1PTSUxDg0gtsTXTXEvbELcOG4eVIN3_aMc9vW/pubhtml?gid=0&single=true

To this CSV output link instead:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/e/2PACX-1vSa8wC8gKcRb7Ac45llfvGWti0LWO88t_TMy1MRPUo1PTSUxDg0gtsTXTXEvbELcOG4eVIN3_aMc9vW/pub?gid=0&single=true&output=csv

After that, reload your data in Power BI. I just tested it, and it pulls the data correctly now:

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Give it a try and let me know if it works for you.

Cary Carr 20 Reputation points

2025-08-05T14:46:05.7866667+00:00

Thanks! This does work, though I note that if I want to convert an existing query, I need to exchange the 'Web.Page' function that the Google Sheet previously defaulted to using to the 'Csv.Document' function, and edit the Navigation step, but it works just fine from there.
Emmanuel Santana 24,230 Reputation points Independent Advisor

2025-08-05T23:04:56.2466667+00:00

Glad it worked for you and indeed, the function change is expected, this is how Google is now handling the links.
JotaF 0 Reputation points

2025-08-09T22:01:17.41+00:00

Emmanuel Santana, did Google announce this change? Do you know where I can find the announcement they made?
Ricardo Andrade 0 Reputation points

2025-08-26T00:47:44.8533333+00:00

Hi guys, I'm struggling with the same problem. I tried what Emmanuel suggested, but I'm receiving another weird error when I tried to publish in csv (or any other way):

Details: "Web.Contents failed to get contents from 'https://doc-0k-9o-sheets.googleusercontent.com/pub/xxx/xxx/xxx/xxx/*/e@2PACX-xxx-xxx?gid=1104317213&single=true&output=csv' (400): Bad Request"

I also tried to change "Web.Contents" to "Csv.Document" in my existing query, but it doesn't work as well.

I appreciate if you could help me. This is a super new error and I can't find any discussions in the web, this is the first discussion I've found.
Emmanuel Santana 24,230 Reputation points Independent Advisor

2025-08-26T02:33:21.1933333+00:00
@JotaF I didn't see any announce for this change. I figured this out because the googleusercontent.com links fail consistently, they’re temporary, session-based, and break with 400 errors. I tested the stable docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/e/.../pub?output=csv format, which worked every time. That confirmed it’s a link structure issue, not a Power BI problem.

@Ricardo Andrade

You're using the wrong link.

The URL starting with https://doc-0k-9o-sheets.googleusercontent.com/pub/... is a redirect endpoint, not the actual public CSV URL. That’s why you're getting a 400 Bad Request.

What you need is the direct CSV export link, built manually like this:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/e/YOUR_FILE_ID/pub?gid=YOUR_SHEET_GID&single=true&output=csv Example:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/e/2PACX-1vSa8wC8gKcRb7Ac45llfvGWti0LWO88t_TMy1MRPUo1PTSUxDg0gtsTXTXEvbELcOG4eVIN3_aMc9vW/pub?gid=0&single=true&output=csv Do not copy the download link from your browser’s "Download CSV" button. That gives you the invalid googleusercontent version.

Once you paste the correct link in Power BI:

Use Web.Contents() with the proper CSV URL.

Wrap that in Csv.Document(...).

Add headers with PromoteHeaders() if needed.
Ricardo Andrade 0 Reputation points

2025-08-28T14:08:51.8766667+00:00

It has worked! thank you so much man, you saved my life
JotaF 0 Reputation points

2025-08-28T14:30:19.9733333+00:00

Thank you, Emmanuel Santana. I also didn’t see any announcement about this change. It’s so weird they make changes like this without any concern for users.

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Why is Power BI no longer reading 'Published To Web' Google Sheets properly?

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