Skip to main content
cancel
Showing results for 
Search instead for 
Did you mean: 

Enhance your career with this limited time 50% discount on Fabric and Power BI exams. Ends September 15. Request your voucher.

Reply
plukacsi
Helper I
Helper I

Power Pivot structure change and refresh into Power BI Desktop error

 

Hi Everyone,

 

I have built a quite complex Power Pivot model and built also visualization for that in Power BI Desktop for now, later on I will connect it to Azure and I belive this problem will solve itself.

 

But now I have refresh problems from Power Pivot to Power BI Desktop, becuase I have changed the structure (some new columns and measures and also some new appendix as well).

 

Could you please help me how to refresh Power BI Desktop with Power Pivot without Import it again and build the visualization again?

 

Thank you for your great help!

 

Power_BI_error.jpg

5 REPLIES 5
v-jiascu-msft
Microsoft Employee
Microsoft Employee

Hi @plukacsi,

 

I have a few questions. 

1. About Power Pivot. Did you create it in the Excel or in the Query Editor?

2. Were there any issues when you click "Close & apply" in the Query Editor?

 

The error message is clear. Maybe you can try to change the privacy levels of the data sources and rebuild the combination.Power Pivot structure change and refresh into Power BI Desktop error.jpg

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Best Regards!

Dale

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

Hi Dale,

 

With privacy level change to public it seems to work, thank you, but this was one part of my question, the other part is and the most important one,

Why cannot Power BI Desktop referesh the changing structure from Power Pivot Excel? I mean if I add one extra column or measure etc. to my model in Excel Power Pivot then Destop always runs with error after I hit refresh and do not add the items and I need to re-import the Excel and re-create all visulizations.

 

Thank you for your help in advance!

 

Best Regards,

Peter

 

 

Hi @plukacsi,

 

As far as I know, we only import the Pivot model from an Excel workbook. Then the Desktop won't have any connection to the Excel workbook. For instance, a Pivot model defines a connection with a SQL DB and some measures, which will be imported into Desktop model. Now the model in the Desktop has all the definitions. Such as data source, connections, measure. If we refresh this model, it will connect to SQL DB directly. This is verified in my test. 

 

Could you please share the .pbix file? If you can't, please post the details of your model and some snapshots of the error message.

 

Power Pivot structure change and refresh into Power BI Desktop error2.jpg

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Best Regards!

Dale

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

Hi @plukacsi,

 

Could you please mark the proper answer as solution or share the solution if it's convenient for you? That will be a big help to the others.

 

Best Regards!
Dale

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

Hi Dale,

 

1. I have created it in Excel, so I add it to the Power BI Desktop through "Import".

 

2. No error message there, only If I try to Refresh All from BI Desktop

 

 

 

Thank you for the further help in advance!

 

Best Regards,

Peter

Helpful resources

Announcements
August Power BI Update Carousel

Power BI Monthly Update - August 2025

Check out the August 2025 Power BI update to learn about new features.

August 2025 community update carousel

Fabric Community Update - August 2025

Find out what's new and trending in the Fabric community.