How to Upgrade Date Slicers to the Most Recent Version?

[Anonymous]

Hi,

The date slicer has been updated to a new version in a recent Power BI Desktop release. The new date slicer version allows for easy manual entry or it allows selection from the calendar drop down.

So, if you open a new (blank) report with a recent Power BI Desktop version and you add a date slicer to it, the slicer will work as described above (the most recent version of the date slicer will be added).

However, if you open an existing report (originally created with an old Power BI Desktop release) and you add a date slicer to it, the slicer will not work as described above (the outdated date slicer version will be added to the report instead of the most recent version). The most recent version of the date slicer will not be added to the report even if you open the existing report with the most recent Power BI Desktop release.

Is it possible to upgrade date slicers created with outdated Power BI Desktop releases to the newest date slicer version?

Thank you.

[vanessafvg]

are you able to show some screen shots.  I am not sure what you are seeing.  It sounds like a strange problem and possibly a bug.  Please can you show the difference between the new and old and what you are expecting as I am not sure  how you are using your data slicer.   

[Anonymous]

Hi vanessafvg!

Thank you for responding.

With the new date slicer version, you can double-click on any part of a date field (month, day or year part) and the part will get highlighted to be easily changed manually. Or, you can click on the calendar icon (to the right of the date field) and the calendar will display.

With the old date slicer version, when you double-click on any part of a date field, the calendar will display. It is not possible to manually change any part of a date field (see image below):

[v-yueyunzh-msft]

Hi , @Anonymous 

Normally, the new version of Power BI is compatible with the old version, you can try deleting the old version of the slicer and then recreating it with the latest version of the slicer to see if that fixes your issue.

Thank you for your time and sharing, and thank you for your support and understanding of PowerBI! 

Best Regards,

Aniya Zhang

If this post helps, then please consider Accept it as the solution to help the other members find it more quickly

[Anonymous]

Hi Aniya,

I have tried what you suggest with multiple old Power BI reports, it doesn't work. Deleting the old date slicer and replacing it with a new one will  still add the old date slicer version. Even if I add a new report page in an old report and add a date slicer on the new page, the old date slicer gets added.

The only way that the new date slicer version gets added to a report is by creating the report from scratch (blank report created with a recent Power BI destop version).

The new date slicer doesn't seem to be compatible with the old version. 

: (

[v-yueyunzh-msft · Accepted solution]

Hi ,  @Anonymous 

Thanks for your quick response! As searched ,i find this:
This is intended behavior. For reports created in and after  March 2022 desktop versions, the date picker in the date range slicer was updated to include the calendar button for accessibility scenarios:

Power BI March 2022 Feature Summary | Microsoft Power BI Blog | Microsoft Power BI

This is expected behavior. Rest assured, if the report was created before March 2022, then the reports will maintain the no calendar icon slicer look and behavior. This is done to ensure that the reports don't change their looks with power bi version updates.

There are two solutions depending on cx requirements. Based on the description, it seems like the cx would prefer the first solution. Both solutions require the desktop version to be March 2022 or up versions. Solutions:

1. If the customer wants all new slicer look/behavior (the features highlighted in green in the description), then the only way is to update the base theme which comes with its own risks. This can be done by switching to the latest base theme by clicking Default in View ribbon. This will ensure that the icon and new visual features appear in every range slicer input. However, please remind the customer that this is a theme update.

Once the cx updates the old report with updated theme, visual formatting options for visuals like text sizes, spacing, padding, axis titles, legend settings, etc might also get updated.

Use report themes in Power BI Desktop - Power BI | Microsoft Learn

If the cx does not like the changes with the updated theme, they can undo that action BUT it cannot be undone if  they update the theme and save the report. I'd recommend cx to save a copy of report just incase they don't like the new look. 

 

2. If the customer ONLY wants the calendar icon to show up in the slicer (and not other changes highlighted in green), they can create/update the custom theme and turn the hideDatePickerButton value to false. For more info, please see:

Power BI March 2022 Feature Summary | Microsoft Power BI Blog | Microsoft Power BI

Thank you for your time and sharing, and thank you for your support and understanding of PowerBI! 

Best Regards,

Aniya Zhang

If this post helps, then please consider Accept it as the solution to help the other members find it more quickly

[Anonymous]

Thank you for your help Aniya!

Option 1 of your solution worked for me beautifully (only minor format adjustments, no biggie!)

Have a great day!

[v-yueyunzh-msft]

Hi, @Anonymous 

I'm sorry, for this problem, your slicer version seems to be several versions ago, Power BI version update, support to open previous versions of .pbix files, first you can open your "About" to view the version of the open .pbix file, if it is the latest version, and according to the above operation there is still no way to reach the latest version of the slicer, then in my uderstand , the only way is to recreate a new .pbix file.

Thank you for your time and sharing, and thank you for your support and understanding of PowerBI! 

Best Regards,

Aniya Zhang

If this post helps, then please consider Accept it as the solution to help the other members find it more quickly