Connect Azure Boards to Excel (legacy)

Azure DevOps Services | Azure DevOps Server | Azure DevOps Server 2022

To support legacy work tracking workflows, you can use Microsoft Excel to add or update work items. You can either work in online mode (connected to Azure Boards or Azure DevOps Server) or in offline mode (against a local copy of the document).

Supported Office clients and Azure DevOps versions

The following table shows Office client support by Azure DevOps/Visual Studio version.

macOS isn't supported. Even if you installed Visual Studio for Mac, connection to Azure DevOps from Excel or any other Office client isn't supported.

Prerequisites

For information about compatibility requirements, see Azure DevOps client compatibility.

Limitations and known issues

The Azure DevOps Office integration add-in predates modern Microsoft 365 authentication, and Microsoft no longer actively maintains it. Expect these limitations:

• Modern authentication: Conditional Access, multifactor authentication (MFA), and device compliance policies can block sign-in. If interactive sign-in fails, sign in to your Office client with the same account you use for Azure DevOps before you open the worksheet.
• Personal access tokens (PATs): Some scenarios prompt for a PAT instead of interactive sign-in. PATs are long-lived credentials, so avoid them when possible. Use Microsoft Entra tokens where supported. If you must use a PAT, see Use personal access tokens.
• Microsoft 365 (web) and macOS: The add-in works only in desktop Office on Windows. Excel for the web and Office for Mac don't support this add-in.
• Hosted agents and automation: The add-in supports interactive use only. It doesn't support unattended or pipeline-based scenarios. Use the Azure DevOps REST API instead.
• Large datasets: Publishing or refreshing thousands of work items in one worksheet can time out. Split work across worksheets or use CSV import/export.

For supported alternatives, see Bulk modify work items in the web portal and Bulk import or update work items using CSV files.

Publish and refresh work items

When you work in Excel, you edit a local copy of work item data.

Use these actions to stay synchronized:

• Refresh downloads the latest values from Azure Boards into your worksheet.
• Publish uploads your worksheet changes to Azure Boards.

At first, your worksheet and Azure Boards match. Over time, other users or processes can change the same work items. To avoid conflicts and stale edits, use this rhythm:

1. Refresh when you open the file.
2. Make a small set of edits.
3. Publish changes.
4. Refresh again, especially during longer sessions.

Repeat this cycle throughout your session.

Azure DevOps and Excel

The following diagram shows the two-way sync between Excel and Azure DevOps:

• Excel publishes local edits to Azure DevOps.
• Excel refreshes to pull server-side updates.

For the full Excel workflow, see Bulk add work items with Excel.

Connect an Azure DevOps project to Excel

To add or modify work items in Excel, first connect your worksheet to an Azure DevOps project.

Choose one connection path:

• Web portal
• Excel client (cloud)
• Excel client (on-premises)
• Visual Studio/Team Explorer

Your worksheet connects as either an Input list (manual list) or a Query list (saved query results).

Work offline and reconnect to Azure Boards

You can work offline in Excel to add or update work items, then reconnect and sync later.

Disconnect a document file from the network

Before you disconnect, prepare your worksheet:

1. Open the document you want to edit offline.

2. Get the latest updates. In Excel, on the Team ribbon, in the Work Items group, select Refresh.

3. Add all columns you plan to edit. You can't add columns after you disconnect.

4. Disconnect your computer from the network, or save the work item list file and copy it to another computer.

   Office might show a connection error after you disconnect.

5. Modify or update the work item list as needed.

   While offline, you can't create most link types between work items. Parent-child links in an Excel tree list are the exception.

Reconnect a file to Azure Boards

When you're back online, resync your file:

1. Reconnect your computer to the network, or copy the file to a computer that is connected to Azure Boards.

2. If you changed the file offline, in Excel, on the Team ribbon, in the Work Items group, select Publish.

3. If you didn't make offline changes, select Refresh instead.

4. Resolve any validation errors or conflicts.

Marketplace extensions

These Marketplace extensions support Azure DevOps and Microsoft 365 integration scenarios:

• Azure DevOps Open in Excel

  Opens query results or selected work items in Excel from the web portal for bulk editing and analysis.

  • Publisher: Microsoft DevLabs
  • Requirements: Microsoft Excel and either Visual Studio or the Azure DevOps Office Integration client
  • Compatibility: Azure DevOps Services and Azure DevOps Server

• Office 365 Integration

  Sends Azure DevOps service hook notifications (for example, build, code push, and work item events) to a Microsoft 365 group inbox.

  • Publisher: Microsoft
  • Scope: Azure DevOps Services

  Note

  The Marketplace page states this extension is preinstalled with Visual Studio Team Services/Azure DevOps Services.

Use AI to work with work items without Excel

If you configure the Azure DevOps MCP Server, you can describe common work item tasks in natural language, avoiding the legacy Excel add-in for many scenarios.

Replace placeholder values before you run a prompt: <ProjectName>, <AreaPath>, <IterationPath>, and <UserName>.

Related content

• Bulk modify work items (web portal)
• Bulk import or update work items using CSV files
• Work in Excel connected to Azure Boards
• Create your backlog