Connecting to Google Sheet and Google Drive Data Source

Issue

Unable to connect to Google Sheets or other Google Drive files.

Environment

Tableau Desktop
Tableau Server

Resolution

Google Sheets

To connect to Google Sheets data sources, use the native connector in Tableau Desktop. For more information, see Tableau Desktop Product Help: Google Sheets.

Google Drive

In 2019.1 and newer versions, use the native Google Drive connector.
In older versions, use a Web Data Connector to create a custom connection. For more information, see Web Data Connector.

Cause

The ability to connect directly to Google Drive data sources was added in Tableau Desktop 2019.1.

Additional Information

For more information about Web Data Connector, see Tableau Community: Web Data Connector in the Community Forums.

A live connection to Google Sheets will result in a prompt for the Google Sheets username and password when opening the workbook even when the workbook is shared with a recipient to view with Tableau Reader, unless the user already is signed into the same Google account on the computer being used to view the workbook.

When a Tableau Desktop workbook is connected to a data extract of a Google Sheets data source, opening the workbook does not require a Google log-in. Refreshing the extract does require a Google log in.

To share a workbook that uses a Google Sheets extract and keep the data fresh, publish the extract to Tableau Server or Tableau Online.

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