Does incremental refresh need old data in the source?

[Anonymous]

Hello, 

I am trying to set up an incremental refresh so I can stack data from an exportation that is made daily. The file is replaced every day with more information because of the client requirement in it is saved in Sharepoint. 

I thought the data would be stored in power bi service after the configuration in desktop and every time the refresh was executed the new data would be added to the "historical data", but it sames it deletes the information from the historical that is not in the new file. 

So, does this mean that the incremental refresh is just a way to speed up the refresh but not one to store information from APIs, daily new exportations that replaced old ones, etc? 

Thank you for your answers 🙂

[v-zhangti · Accepted solution]

Hi, @Anonymous 

When you configure incremental refresh, you need to specify the columns that contain the date or time values that indicate when the data was last updated. Power BI uses these columns to determine which rows are new and need to be loaded into the dataset.

However, it is important to note that incremental refresh is not a feature that stores information from APIs, daily new exportations that replaced old ones, etc. When you refresh data in Power BI, you are updating the data in the dataset that is stored in Power BI from your data source. This refresh is a full refresh and not incremental.

Incremental refresh allows you to load only the new data into your dataset. This feature is useful when you have a large dataset that is updated frequently, and you want to reduce the time it takes to refresh the data.

Incremental refresh for datasets and real-time data in Power BI - Power BI | Microsoft Learn

Best Regards,

Community Support Team _Charlotte

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