Affinity Publisher doesn't support excel filter anymore

[Qooras]

Hi,

I have a ready-made ID card project for printing in Affinity Publisher (v2.6.2). I print them from time to time, sometimes even hundreds at once, so I prepared an Excel (xlsx) file with the data for automatic merging into the ID card layout. Each card has a unique barcode, and I always used to scan the barcode right after printing using a scanner that would fill a designated cell in the Excel file. This allowed me to verify the barcode's correctness (I use conditional formatting to highlight the cell when the value matches the card’s ID).

This method was very convenient. With thousands of records in Excel, when I wanted to print a new batch of cards, I simply filtered the data to show only records with missing scanned barcodes. Everything worked exactly as described for over a year without any issues — I think the last time I used it was about three months ago.

Recently, I needed to print new cards, and that’s when the problem appeared. Affinity Publisher's Data Merge Manager now shows zero records detected. However, when I remove the filter from the Excel sheet, everything works again. I tested it with a different xlsx file and got the same result — applying any filter causes Affinity Publisher to detect no records. I’ve refreshed the data connection several times, but the issue persists. Everything is up to date. I haven’t changed anything in the xlsx structure or the Publisher project. I’m on Windows 11 and using the latest version of Affinity Publisher (2.6.2).

Did Microsoft change something in Excel’s filtering behavior that hasn’t yet been patched in Affinity Publisher? Or could the problem be on my end? Has anyone encountered a similar issue and might be able to help? Without the filtering, I now have to do twice the work I used to.

[Hangman]

Hi @Qooras and welcome to the forums,

This is a known regression in the 2.6.2 release logged under AF-6051, which was fixed in the 2.6.3 (3273) Beta released yesterday...

If not already a part of the Beta program, you can join free here and install the Beta version alongside the Retail version, which should allow you to run your Data Merge with filtered Excel data...

[Qooras]

Hi @Hangman,

thank you very much for response. Now you calmed me down, everything is clear.