Issues with Pivot table linked to external source (Access)

Hello everyone,

I have a dashboard created in excel with a lot of slicers and pivot charts that are linked to the data in Access. Recently, I noticed that the file size was becoming too big. So under pivot tables options, i decided to de-select "save source data with file" option. This drastically reduced the file size. However, when i open the workbook again and try to use the slicers, i get a message "The pivot table report was saved without the underlying data. Use the refresh command to update the report". Now I understand i need to click refresh data every time i open the file. But what if i want to email the excel to someone? How is he/she will refresh the data. Access Database is sitting in my laptop. I need to email this excel dashboard to various stakeholders in the company and they will not be able to use the slicer.

Please any help or tips will be appreciated

thank you

It's one or the other. You either save the data with the workbook, or the users need access to the source file. If you, and they, have Power Pivot, that will generally keep the file size much smaller than a regular pivot.