Power BI data source SSAS Tabular Model via Localhost not working

Hi there,

Short Version

I'm connecting to my tabular model via localhost:[portnumber], which used to work fine over the past months, but am experiencing difficulties now (report crashes) - anybody with similar problem / solution to this?

Long Version

I've been using a SSAS Tabular Model as source for my PBI report "locally" as I don't have an actual SSAS Instance installed on a SQL server yet - meaning for the data source settings

• server: localhost:12345 (the port changes every time I close&open Visual Studio and I have to re-enter the current port number in PBI)
•  database: TabularProject2_MYUSERNAME_fd6a2703-ae06-49c2-923c-def99da059cd
•  Mode: Connect Live

I've been doing this as I got started with SSAS and PBI and it worked like a charm (just had to adjust the port number upon opening). My thought was then to, once I have my SSAS Instance, deploy the tabular model there and just change the server and database name in my PBI report.

Now the problem: since a couple of days this stopped working and actually caused all my reports set up in that way to crash upon opening, precisely

1. error message that "unable to connect" (this is normal)

2. I change the portnumber to the correct one (this is normal - and yes, it's the correct port number)

3. Power BI Desktop goes into some state of apathy and doesn't load the ribbons nor show my report (THIS is the issue)

My Setup

• Visual Studio 2015 Community Version
• Power BI Desktop 2.50.4859.502 64-bit (September 2017) - Pro Account
• Tabular Model 2016 (RTIM 1200)

What I've already tried (and did not work/help)

• created new/different datamodels and reports (my initial thought was that my report and datamodel grew too complex/big)
• zipped/unzipped the pbix file into a folder and exchanged some of the xml etc. files (zipping back and renaming to .pbix throws error when trying to open w Power BI - didn't surprise me though)
• old versions of the same report(s)

Using "Import" instead of the live connection does the job, but then I can't change back to "live connection" at a later point. My aim is to build datamodel and report, so to have it ready once I get my server and then deploy rather quickly. The report grew quite extensive over multiple pages and what would already help me is if I could recover what I did so far (not just out of laziness, but also since I don't remember everything in detail...)

Any ideas?

Thanks in advance & best regards

Felix