Join us at FabCon Atlanta from March 16 - 20, 2026, for the ultimate Fabric, Power BI, AI and SQL community-led event. Save $200 with code FABCOMM.
Register now!The Power BI Data Visualization World Championships is back! Get ahead of the game and start preparing now! Learn more
Hello,
I'm preparing myself for the certification PL300 and I have a doubt regarding to the information I found in the documentation :
1. If we get data from local excel file, I undersand that changes to the original excel ARE REFLECTED in Powerbi after refreshing Powerbi. So I don´t undersand why it says that we should use it for data that doesn´t change. If we put updating data in service every hour, it will update it.
2. If we get data from excel of onedrive, it says that reports are automatically updated.
I created a powerbi report with data loaded from WEB -> onedrive ( I put my URL there).
Then I published that in service ( the same account in Onedrive as in Powerbi), I changed data in excel in onedrive, and my data doens´t change automatically in Powerbi.
I have to put " refresh" in Powerbi to see data changed.
The documention says that OneDrive and Powerbi connect to each other about once an hour.
so I it refreshes it automatically.
So, why if it is automatic, why do I need to refresh PowerBi ?
I don´t get what the documention says.
Can you please help me to understand that?
Solved! Go to Solution.
@ania_roh Correct, the documentation for the local file is not accounting for if you are running a data gateway and refreshing the data. And, I have never had any luck with the the whole "automatic" update between Power BI and OneDrive for Business. As far as I am concerned, that functionality has never actually worked correctly. At least not for me.
@ania_roh Correct, the documentation for the local file is not accounting for if you are running a data gateway and refreshing the data. And, I have never had any luck with the the whole "automatic" update between Power BI and OneDrive for Business. As far as I am concerned, that functionality has never actually worked correctly. At least not for me.
Check out the November 2025 Power BI update to learn about new features.
Advance your Data & AI career with 50 days of live learning, contests, hands-on challenges, study groups & certifications and more!
| User | Count |
|---|---|
| 57 | |
| 44 | |
| 42 | |
| 20 | |
| 18 |