PowerBI stuck on refresh, only way to fix it is reinstalling EVERY TIME

[Anonymous]

Hi,
We're using the latest release of PowerBI in our company. I was handed over by a (now former) colleague a PowerBI .pbix file.
If I try to refresh it it just gets stuck on the refresh window - no error whatsoever, not even in the log file, it just keeps loading the data forever. Rebooting the PC doesn't help.
I tried uninstalling it and reinstalling it, refreshing worked the first time but on the second time I tried refreshing it I got the same situation again - stuck on the refresh window.
Has anyone experienced this issue? How can I fix it permanently?
Thanks!

[martinriddar]

This is still an issue in the January 2025 release, way to go Microsoft...

What I did (inspired by the selected answer and the linked Reddit thread) was to open transform data and refresh all tables, then apply and close. After that the refresh worked again.

[dschuster]

I found the workaround here: https://www.reddit.com/r/PowerBI/comments/pco584/comment/hakgb86/

Go to transform data, cancel the refresh, select refresh all, cancel it and refresh all again. Once the refresh is complete in the transform window, apply. Then back to the main PowerBI window try to refresh again. 

[Anonymous]

Hi @Anonymous 

1. Please check whether there existing any step in Power Query consuming too much CPU or memory. And try to use Table.Buffer to improve the data load performance.

Optimization guide for Power BI

2. Use DAX studio/ Performance Analyzer to check out which's the most time-consuming:

Follow this blog to install the dax studio,then connect the opened pbix file in dax studio

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/power-bi/desktop-performance-analyzer

3. What is your data source, and what's your connection mode? 

If your data source is online such as in onedrive or sharepoint online, they use automatic refresh in power bi service. This means no user configuration is necessary in order for the dataset to be refreshed on a regular basis. Data refresh settings are configured for you by Power BI. For online service providers, refresh usually occurs once-a-day. For files loaded from OneDrive, automatic refresh occurs about every hour for data that does not come from an external data source. While you can configure different schedule refresh settings and manually refresh, you probably don’t need to.

Best Regards,
Rico Zhou

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