Forum Discussion
Helper IPower BI Files Won't Open After February Update
Download an older version of Power bi from https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/power-bi/fundamentals/desktop-latest-update-archive?tabs=powerbi-desktop I downloaded November 2024 Update (link in the botom just before the previous month's header), I had some alert notifications, but file opend, rename the table in it, save the file and go back to the new version.
I had the same problem. My table was named [ Measures ] = BLANK(), but in the January update it doesn't support [ ] table naming, even if I try to name the table that way in the new version, I just can'tExact same problem today and took me a while to find an older version of Power BI Desktop to download (odd considering Microsofts recommendations are often to rever back to older versions in the event of a bug). Thanks to the links above I've managed to go back to November and rename my measures table. It was common practice for me to have a table called measures so I have many files affected. It would have been more helpful if we had been able to open the PBIX and then be forced to rename any tables with protected words.
Helper II think it's important to address the root cause of this, so that others can change their approach as well to avoid this being an issue in the future. This issue appears to have come about because of a non-conformance to best practices.
"Measures" appears to be a reserved name and cannot be utilised by the user to describe an object. People get around this by using different names such as " Measures", ".Measures". The primary reasons people use this naming convention is because it puts the measures object at the top of the view pane on the right hand side and lets them use the naming convention they're familiar with. Microsoft has already designed a measures-specific object that, when created properly, appears at the top of the viewing pane regardless of the name used.
The documentation uses the naming convention 'Calculations' which can be seen in their image under the section titled Organising your measures (the final text piece above the green tip):
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/power-bi/transform-model/desktop-measures
If people adjust their approach to use the same language Microsoft has provided in their imagery (e.g. Calculations instead of Measures) it avoids this type of problem in the future.