Forum Discussion
Can I schedule a data refresh in Power BI Desktop?
Hi, hawkeye159
In Power BI Desktop, the direct feature of scheduled data refresh isn't available. The primary way to refresh your data in Power BI Desktop is to use the Refresh button on the Home tab, as you've discovered. This action refreshes the data in the file model with the updated data from the original data source.
Scheduled refresh is a feature of the Power BI service (Power BI Pro or Power BI Premium) where you can configure a dataset to refresh at specified intervals. This is especially useful when reports and dashboards are published to the Power BI service, and you want to make sure they reflect the most up-to-date data without manual intervention. You can set up to 8 daily refreshes for datasets in shared capacity or up to 48 daily refreshes for datasets in Premium capacity. For more information on setting up scheduled refreshes, you can visit:
Data refresh in Power BI - Power BI | Microsoft Learn
If you're using Power BI Desktop and need to automatically refresh your data, consider publishing your report to the Power BI service and setting up a scheduled refresh there. Keep in mind that to use the scheduled refresh feature in the Power BI service, you'll need a Power BI Pro license, or the content needs to be hosted in a workspace in a Premium capacity.
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Best Regards
Yongkang Hua
If this post helps, then please consider Accept it as the solution to help the other members find it more quickly.
Hi, hawkeye159
In Power BI Desktop, the direct feature of scheduled data refresh isn't available. The primary way to refresh your data in Power BI Desktop is to use the Refresh button on the Home tab, as you've discovered. This action refreshes the data in the file model with the updated data from the original data source.
Scheduled refresh is a feature of the Power BI service (Power BI Pro or Power BI Premium) where you can configure a dataset to refresh at specified intervals. This is especially useful when reports and dashboards are published to the Power BI service, and you want to make sure they reflect the most up-to-date data without manual intervention. You can set up to 8 daily refreshes for datasets in shared capacity or up to 48 daily refreshes for datasets in Premium capacity. For more information on setting up scheduled refreshes, you can visit:
Data refresh in Power BI - Power BI | Microsoft Learn
If you're using Power BI Desktop and need to automatically refresh your data, consider publishing your report to the Power BI service and setting up a scheduled refresh there. Keep in mind that to use the scheduled refresh feature in the Power BI service, you'll need a Power BI Pro license, or the content needs to be hosted in a workspace in a Premium capacity.
How to Get Your Question Answered Quickly
Best Regards
Yongkang Hua
If this post helps, then please consider Accept it as the solution to help the other members find it more quickly.
Thank you for your answer and explanation.
As a follow-up, if you wouldn’t mind, can I ask a few more questions about Power BI please?
I work for a small organization, with around 50 people who I would like to have access to Power BI reports that I will create and maintain.
I currently create reports and visuals (hoping that’s the right terminology!) using Power BI Desktop but I want to share these with my colleagues in a read-only capacity. I don’t want them to make any changes, except for normal filtering etc. But my organization wouldn’t want to incur the costs of Power BI Pro for each member of staff. Is there a way to avoid costs per member of staff?
If we all had Power BI Desktop installed individually, can I save reports locally and they be able to access them the same way I do? I understand from your previous answer that I wouldn’t then be able to set up scheduled refreshes but are there any more drawbacks other than that?
Or do I propose to my organization that they pay for me to become a Power BI Pro user and I then publish reports to the Power BI Service. Would my colleagues be able to view those reports on the Power BI Service without incurring a cost themselves?
In summary, I’m looking to avoid those costs per person and find a way that we use Power BI for free or at the least, just pay for one licence.
I hope I’ve made sense. I appreciate your time and look forward to hearing from you.
Kindest regards,
Emma
Hi, hawkeye159
Having a Pro license is the standard way to share reports. However, both the publisher and the receiver need a Pro license. This may not be the most cost-effective solution for your organization, as it requires the purchase of licenses for each user.
Power BI Premium, which is a capacity-based offering that gives you the flexibility to publish reports broadly inside and outside your enterprise without requiring viewers to use a per-user license. This can be a cost-effective solution if you have a large number of users who just need to view the report.
You can also publish to the web, a feature that allows you to share your report with anyone on the Internet. However, please note that this method does not provide any security as the reports are publicly accessible.
You can also try sharing locally, and if all users have Power BI Desktop installed, you can theoretically share the .pbix file directly. However, this approach has significant limitations. Users won't see updates unless you redistribute the file, and there won't be centralized control.You can refer to the following link:
How to share power bi report with non pro users? - PowerBI Talks
4 Ways How to Share a Power BI Report: It’s Easy – Master Data Skills + AI (enterprisedna.co)
Best Regards
Yongkang Hua
That's really helpful, thank you so much. I shall have a read of the links and speak to my organization about the options. Thanks again, I really appreciate your advice.
