Disable "Include in report refresh" does not work

Hi powerlight1​,

The Include in report refresh option should prevent a table from being refreshed during a normal semantic model refresh. However, if the query is referenced by other queries, Power Query may still execute it to refresh those dependent tables.
Please try the following steps:

1. Open Power BI Desktop → Transform data.
2. Right-click the table you want to exclude and uncheck Include in report refresh.
3. Go to View → Query Dependencies and check whether other queries reference this table.
4. If other queries depend on it, Power Query may still evaluate the source query during their refresh.
5. Select Close & Apply, save the PBIX file, and republish it to Power BI Service if required.

Important: Disabling Enable load is different from disabling Include in report refresh. Also, refreshing the Power Query preview can still execute the query independently.

My recommendation: If you want to keep the table's existing data unchanged, ensure that it is an Import table, disable Include in report refresh, and check that no other refreshing queries depend on it.

If the table is independent and still reloads during a normal refresh, I would suggest checking the refresh operation and Power BI Desktop version to narrow down the issue.

Best Regards,
Maruthi
LinkedIn - http://www.linkedin.com/in/maruthi-siva-prasad/
X            -  Maruthi Siva Prasad - (@MaruthiSP) / X

Hi powerlight1​ 

The Include in report refresh option is used to exclude a query from the regular report refresh process.

If you have disabled this option for the old table but are still experiencing the issue, I would suggest checking the following:

1. Open Power Query Editor and confirm that the Include in report refresh option is disabled for the old query.
2. Check whether any other queries are referencing the old query using the Query Dependencies view.
3. Check whether the error occurs when selecting Close & Apply or only when refreshing the report.

For reference: Configure refresh options in Power BI.

Hi powerlight1​,

I think the key distinction here is between refreshing the data and refreshing the schema.

Unchecking Include in report refresh prevents that query from being included in the normal data refresh. Microsoft documents that excluded queries are also excluded from automatic refresh in the Power BI service.

However, Power BI Desktop can still synchronize schema changes when you use a normal Refresh or Close & Apply. That means if the source table has added, renamed, or removed columns, Power BI can still detect those structural changes even though you did not want the old imported rows refreshed.

Microsoft now exposes separate refresh options for exactly this reason:

• Refresh Schema and data
• Sync schema only
• Refresh data only

So if your goal is to keep both the old data and the old table structure unchanged, I would avoid a normal schema refresh on that table.

If you are on a recent Desktop version, try selecting the table and using Refresh data only rather than Refresh Schema and data.

Microsoft's refresh guidance explains that Refresh data only loads fresh data while preserving the current schema in the semantic model.

For your scenario, though, if this table is supposed to remain permanently frozen, I would also consider removing its dependency on the live source entirely. For example, keep the old table as a static import or snapshot and bring the new source version in as a separate query/table.

That is usually safer than keeping a frozen historical table connected to a source whose schema is still changing.

AI-assisted drafting: AI was used to help structure and phrase this response. I reviewed and validated the technical content before posting.

Hi powerlight1​,

Echoing v-aatheeque​ and maruthisp​: the Include in report refresh setting only controls whether a query is run during a refresh, and, as maruthisp notes, a query that other queries depend on may still be evaluated. Both replies suggest checking Query Dependencies, and that is the right first step. The part I would add is why unchecking the box does not make the message go away: the warning about a missing column is about the table definition the model has stored versus the shape the query returns when you close and apply, which is a separate step from refreshing data. So the setting alone may not be enough to freeze a table whose source has changed. I can't see your file, so treat the options below as ways to get to a frozen copy rather than a guaranteed fix.

What each setting does

Ways to keep the old data and add the new table

A tolerant column selection looks like this:

let
    Source = OldTable,
    // keep the columns the report was built on; missing ones become null instead of an error
    Keep = Table.SelectColumns(Source, {"Id", "Name", "OldMeasureColumn"}, MissingField.UseNull)
in
    Keep

If the old data is the part that must never change, the snapshot is the safest of the three, because nothing in the file then depends on the source that was altered. Afterwards, load the latest version of the table as a separate query, and use relationships or a merge to connect the two where needed.

So my overall approach would be:

1. Check Query Dependencies for anything still referencing the old table
2. Freeze the old data as a static snapshot, separate from the source
3. Load the latest table version as its own query
4. Use MissingField.UseNull anywhere the old column list must be kept

AI-assisted drafting: AI was used to help structure and phrase this response. I reviewed and validated the technical content before posting.

Hi powerlight1​  if you disable Include in report refresh, the query should be ignored during semantic model refresh. However please make sure any reference to that query is not being used in other active queries.
Hope this helps to resolve your problem. If it does, then please mark it as solution.

Thanks - Samrat

Hi,

Unchecking "Include in report refresh" prevents normal data refresh, but Power BI may still evaluate the query and detect schema changes when applying modifications.

Recommended solution:

1. Save a backup of your original PBIX file.
2. Export the existing historical data to Excel or CSV before refreshing.
3. Import the saved data as a separate table named HistoricalData, preserving the original columns and data types.
4. Import the updated source as a new table named CurrentData.
5. Keep both tables independent to avoid future schema conflicts.

Important: Disabling refresh or duplicating a query does not guarantee that the original data and metadata will remain unchanged.

This approach allows you to preserve your historical data while working with the latest table structure.

Khashayar
https://www.linkedin.com/in/khashayary/

Hi powerlight1​ ,

The Include in report refresh option only disables automatic data refresh but It does not guarantee that your PBI report will preserve the old schema or ignore broken column references.

Step by step process to fullfill the requirements

1. Take a backup of your existing PBIX file.
2. Keep the existing table as a static snapshot.
3. Disable its refresh.
4. Check Power Query dependencies for references to removed or renamed columns( that is the most probable casue).
5. Import the updated source as a separate table with a new name.
6. Validate existing visuals, relationships and measures.

Important: If Power BI still evaluates the old query, export its existing data to CSV and use that as a static source.

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