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h11
Helper III
Helper III

Power BI refresh fail after deleting a few columns from the Share Point list.

Hello All,

 

I’ve created several dashboards that refresh daily, using multiple data sources that include a SharePoint list as well to generate charts. I’ve been asked to delete 10 out of 25 columns as part of data cleansing from this SharePoint list. These 10 columns aren’t used in any of the Power BI dashboards, but I’m concerned that deleting them might affect the daily refresh. Could you suggest the best way to delete these columns without impacting the daily refresh?

 

Thanks in advance. 

 

2 REPLIES 2
WishAskedSooner
Responsive Resident
Responsive Resident

There are multiple ways to skin a cat, but probably the easiest is just edit the query of the table when in the PBI Data Model View. This will bring up the PowerQuery editor, you can select the columns you want to keep and Remove Other Columns. Save query and your done! It shouldn't affect the daily refresh.

Hi @h11 

To safely delete the 10 unused columns from the SharePoint list without impacting the daily refresh, follow these steps:

  1. Check in Power Query:
    Open the Power Query editor in Power BI and review the steps applied to the SharePoint list. Specifically, check if any of these 10 columns are being referenced in any of the transformation steps.

    • Go through each step sequentially to identify any dependencies on the columns.
    • Alternatively, you can check the Advanced Editor to quickly scan for any mention of these columns.
  2. Ensure the columns are not key components:
    Verify that the columns are not used as:

    • Relationship keys between tables in your data model.
    • Inputs to any calculated measures, calculated columns, or visualizations in the dashboard.
  3. Adjust Power Query steps if needed:
    If the columns are referenced in any transformation steps, update or remove those steps to eliminate dependency on the columns before deleting them in SharePoint.

  4. Test the refresh:
    After making these changes in Power Query, test the refresh in Power BI Desktop to ensure it completes successfully. Then, test the refresh in the Power BI Service before finalizing the deletion.

If the columns are not referenced in Power Query or used as keys/measures, deleting them should not affect the daily refresh or the functionality of your dashboards.

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

 

Regards,
Rita Fainshtein | Microsoft MVP
https://www.linkedin.com/in/rita-fainshtein/
Blog : https://www.madeiradata.com/profile/ritaf/profile

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