Previews are refreshing automatically

[hansei]

I have a report that gets Excel data from SharePoint folders. There are around 30 files and ultimately around 12 tables ranging from 50-300000 rows. If I choose to do 'Refresh All' from the Power Query Editor, it takes a couple of hours for all of the previews to rebuild.

If the Power Query Editor is closed and then re-opened, the previews (are cached I assumed and) simply display from the last refresh. If Power BI Desktop is closed and re-opened, then the Editor is opened, the previews still display from their last refresh. However, if a couple of hours pass and the Editor is opened, all of the files are refreshed again, and I have to wait hours for the previews to complete and to be able to make any query changes.

This seems abnormal to me, and I wonder what I can do to prevent having to wait so long.

[v-frfei-msft]

Hi @hansei ,

In your scenario, I suggest to Configure scheduled refresh for your dataset in power bi service insteading refreshing your data in power bi desktop. For more details, please check the online document.

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/power-bi/refresh-scheduled-refresh

[hansei]

How is that of any help to my issue: which, to iterate, is that anytime I want to edit a query I have to wait hours beforehand?