The problem
If you’re using SharePoint Online (M365) you won’t run into this issue. But for those of you, like me, who are still on SharePoint 2013 or 2016 you may have tried to use “Export to Excel” on a SharePoint list or library and received the following error message:
To export a list, you must have a Microsoft SharePoint Foundation-compatible application.
Clicking “OK” only redirects you to page that is most definitely not an Excel export:
The workaround
Using Internet Explorer to open and export your SharePoint list might be the simplest way to export your list. However, some are unable to use IE.
If you can’t download or use Internet Explorer (IE) you can still get your lists exported to Excel by working in reverse. Rather than export from SharePoint we are going to open Excel and import from SharePoint.
1. Open a blank workbook in Excel
2. Navigate to the Data ribbon –> Get Data > From Other Sources > From SharePoint List
Note: There are two SharePoint list options under Get Data. Do not select From Online Services > From SharePoint Online list (this option would be for O365 only and O365 users will not need this post’s workaround).
3. Paste the URL to your SharePoint site. You can paste the URL to the list you’re wanting to import, but delete everything after the site’s name in the URL.
4. Click OK.
5. Select Windows and leave credentials as the default “Use my current credentials” unless you have reason to access the list as another account (perhaps a service account which may be able to retrieve all items even with restricted item-level permissions).
6. Click Connect.
7. Find the name of the list you want to import, select it, and click Load.
8. Depending on the size of your list, this may take a while. Once imported, you’ll find all of your data as well as some SharePoint metadata associated with your list items.
While not ideal, it doesn’t take long to do and you do get the result you’re looking for (with a bit of cleanup, deleting unnecessary columns and such).
Some things to keep in mind:
- Exporting from SharePoint using IE allows you to export a view.
- Importing from SharePoint using Excel imports every single list item and column, regardless of view.
- You’re only able to import items to which you at least have view permissions.
I don’t have an option of SharePoint under ‘Get Data’ > ‘Other Sources’
@Priyanka – that likely either means you’re using an older version of Excel, or your particular SKU doesn’t include that option. I found this out myself in that my home computer’s Excel installation did not include another option, “Oracle Database” until I installed a different edition of office. Based on the Account tab in my Excel now (where I do have the SharePoint Online and Oracle Database options inside the Get Data menu) my current version is “Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2016, version 2005, build 12827.20210 Click to Run, Current Channel (Preview)” I’m also an Office insider in the Monthly Channel (Targeted).
This is great. This issue has frustrated me for so long and has kept me tied to IE more than I’d like to be.
I personally prefer to use “Get Data” because I can selectively choose what to retrieve from the list in the query editor/transform window in PowerQuery. But hey here’s a trick: That text you get when you try to export (the browser page of text beginning with “WEB”) is an Excel query definition. If you take that text and dump it into Notepad and save it with a .iqy file name, you can double-click it to import that SharePoint list into Excel normally.
That’s awesome! Thanks for adding that tip.