DirectQuery Not Supported for Certain Desktop Users

[MDF-CET]

A year ago, two DirectQuery tables were added to a semantic model I manage that primarily uses import mode for tables. Development has continued regularly on this mixed source report without issue. Today, the semantic model can no longer be updated in PowerQuery because both of the DirectQuery tables now return the error message "This step results in a query that is not supported in DirectQuery mode." 

Neither of the DirectQuery tables have any transformations - they only connect to the dataflows. The tables only have two steps in PowerQuery:

* Source - which points to our premium capacity workspace

* Navigation - which points to the source dataflow 

Both dataflows used as the source have the enhanced compute settings turned on. 

When attempting to create a new semantic model with the source dataflows, the option to activate Direct Query is never offered and it defaults to import.  When looking at the data sources in the navigate view, none of them have the icon that indicates Direct Query is available. The version of Power BI Desktop is August 2025 (2.146.1026.0). 

I asked another person in our organization to navigate to the dataflows as a source and they see the icons are available that indicate Direct Query IS available. They are also using the same version of Power BI Desktop (2.146.1026.0). I have restarted my computer and still face the same issue.

Does any one have any suggestions for what could be blocking Direct Query for a particular user of Power BI Desktop, but not others?

[wardy912 · Accepted solution]

Hi @MDF-CET 

 This has been previously reported here

Re: Unable to use Direct query with Gen1 Dataflows - Microsoft Fabric Community

Looks like the cause was the recent updates in BI

Here are a couple of workarounds to try:

Roll Back to July 2025 Version
Users have confirmed that reverting to the July 2025 version of Power BI Desktop restores DirectQuery functionality and the “View” icons for eligible dataflows 1.

Clear Credentials and Cache If you must stay on the August build:

Go to File > Options & Settings > Data Source Settings > Global.
Remove credentials for Power Platform/Dataflows.
Re-sign in.
Go to Options > Data Load, clear the cache.
Restart Power BI Desktop.
Connect via Get Data > Dataflows (not the legacy connector).
Check for Unintended Transformations Even minor steps like Change Type can break DirectQuery compatibility. Ensure all transformations are handled inside the dataflow itself.

I hope this helps, please mark as solved if it does, thanks!

[MDF-CET · Accepted solution]

Thank you very much for that information @wardy912 ! Based on the comments in the other post I got the most recent installer for Power BI and then ran the "repair" function since it recognized I had the latest release. The repair corrected the issue I saw and everything is back to normal now. 

[wardy912 · Accepted solution]

Hi @MDF-CET 

 This has been previously reported here

Re: Unable to use Direct query with Gen1 Dataflows - Microsoft Fabric Community

Looks like the cause was the recent updates in BI

Here are a couple of workarounds to try:

Roll Back to July 2025 Version
Users have confirmed that reverting to the July 2025 version of Power BI Desktop restores DirectQuery functionality and the “View” icons for eligible dataflows 1.

Clear Credentials and Cache If you must stay on the August build:

Go to File > Options & Settings > Data Source Settings > Global.
Remove credentials for Power Platform/Dataflows.
Re-sign in.
Go to Options > Data Load, clear the cache.
Restart Power BI Desktop.
Connect via Get Data > Dataflows (not the legacy connector).
Check for Unintended Transformations Even minor steps like Change Type can break DirectQuery compatibility. Ensure all transformations are handled inside the dataflow itself.

I hope this helps, please mark as solved if it does, thanks!