Forum Discussion

Anonymous's avatar
Anonymous
Not applicable
5 years ago
Solved

Revert .pbix file to an earlier version

Hi all,

 

do you know if there's any way to read/open a .pbix file  with an earlier version of PBI Desktop? Like a version downgrade or similar?

 

I'm currently working with a November 2020 .pbix file and the new environment has an older version of PowerBI Desktop that I'm not allowed to update.  It seems it is not even possible to open the file. Here the error message:

 

Thanks everyone!

Need Help
  • foodd's avatar
    foodd
    2 years ago

    A quick search turns up a source for old versions of Power BI Desktop including the month and year mentioned originally in the Original Post.  This would be Power BI previous versions – Sergio and Sabrina Zenatti .  Please reach out directly to the publisher behind the URL supplied.

     

    The notion is that the appropriate legacy version of Power BI Desktop given a chance would be able to open the legacy .pbix created or modified under the same Power BI Desktop build.   Should the builds prove worthy, and if a specific build does not open the file in question, please download another build suggested from around the same timeframe until successful.

     

    The source cited is referred to in this post for information purposes only.   The source is not affiliated with Microsoft, and no warranty of fitness is implied. The consumer of these files is completely responsible for any and all outcomes.

19 Replies

  • Cleyton's avatar
    Cleyton
    New Member
    4 years ago

    I was getting rendering error with a file being opened in previous version of Power bi Desktop.
    I solved my incompatibility issue by changing 3 files in PBIX.

    I saved a file with the previous version empty, then opened it with 7zip and copied the 3 files, Version, Settings and DiagramLayout, to the PBIX that I wanted to open in the previous version.

    After saving it opened normally. this between the power bi version of August 2021 and December 2020.

    • Anonymous's avatar
      Anonymous
      Not applicable
      2 years ago

      this worked. Though i needed just the Settings file. This helped me today! thank you! 

      • elijahnaz's avatar
        elijahnaz
        Frequent Visitor
        2 years ago

        yes, only settings file substitution helped. otherwise can't open pbix in earlier version

      • arvasaisantosh's avatar
        arvasaisantosh
        New Member
        2 years ago

        Hello ChukaUdeh!   -   But how to unzip a normal .pbix file; We can only unzip a zipped file, right?; Could you PLEASE help me!

    • AkGaur's avatar
      AkGaur
      New Member
      2 years ago

      Thanks for the solution! Can you please share how you save the Version, Settings and DiagramLayout file in the target file. When I try doing that, I am unzipping the file , replacing them with these three files and zip it again. But that shows file corrupted when we open it in Power BI.

      Thanks

      • Anonymous's avatar
        Anonymous
        Not applicable
        2 years ago

        Try replacing just the settings and version file first and see if it works. Below steps worked for me:

        Lets call your report as NewVersion.pbix
        Steps:
        1. Create a blank report with the older version pbi desktop, save it as OldVersion.pbix
        2. right click OldVersion.pbix and unzip it. It will expand into a folder structure
        3. Separately unzip your report NewVersion.pbix, this should also result in a expanded folder structure
        4. from the expanded OldVersion.pbix folder structure, copy Version and Settings file into the , expanded folder for NewVersion.pbix. It should replace the 2 filed
        5. Select all the files in the expanded folder structure for NewVersion.pbix and right click to zip it
        6. Once zipped, change the extension to .pbix and open with pbi desktop and that should open the file normally
  • Anonymous's avatar
    Anonymous
    Not applicable
    5 years ago

    Anonymous - If the suggestion worked for you, please mark my post as solution to help others find this easily.

  • foodd's avatar
    foodd
    Icon for Community Champion rankCommunity Champion
    2 years ago

    A quick search turns up a source for old versions of Power BI Desktop including the month and year mentioned originally in the Original Post.  This would be Power BI previous versions – Sergio and Sabrina Zenatti .  Please reach out directly to the publisher behind the URL supplied.

     

    The notion is that the appropriate legacy version of Power BI Desktop given a chance would be able to open the legacy .pbix created or modified under the same Power BI Desktop build.   Should the builds prove worthy, and if a specific build does not open the file in question, please download another build suggested from around the same timeframe until successful.

     

    The source cited is referred to in this post for information purposes only.   The source is not affiliated with Microsoft, and no warranty of fitness is implied. The consumer of these files is completely responsible for any and all outcomes.

  • Dimani's avatar
    Dimani
    Icon for Helper II rankHelper II
    1 year ago

    Hi,

     

    Not working for me when I tried to downconvert a file from May 2023 to May 2021.  Wish Microsoft had a save as option.

     

    Best regards