External data connections are removed

Hi,

A file of mine is seemingly corrupted and gives the following error on opening: "Removed Records: External connections from /xl/connection.xml part (Data connection)"

My setup is as follows:

- datasource.xlsx: consists of 2 sheets, using powerquery tables in each (pulling data from an SQL server). This file works, can be refreshed, etc. All good.

- dashboard.xlsx: consists of 2 pivot tables, each of which link back to the datasource file/tables.

Everything was working. But now, when I refresh the pivot (which works and updates), the next time I open the file it gives the external connection error (and thus removes the connections killing the file).

If I don't refresh the pivot, I can continue to use the file.

How can I troubleshoot this? I know I can checkout the XML files - but I don't really know what I need to be correcting here...

After further troubleshooting, I've narrowed the problem down to this:

- if I make standard pivot tables, it's fine
- once I add the datamodel function, it breaks

if I keep the pivot table (with data model) in the same file as the source data, then it works.

I really don't understand why it won't work across linked files (because it did in the past) - but I'll just have to work with this now.