Problem with creating connection in model

[Anonymous]

Hi, I have a problem with refreshing my data. The refresh is not finishing 'creating connection in model'. I cancelled it after an hour. These are 8 excel files with a total of about 50MB. It worked oke before, but for some reason not anymore now. 

Can somebody assist?

[v-alq-msft]

Hi, @Anonymous 

Based on your description, I have something to confirm. 
Are your files in On Premise  or in the cloud/ Online? Is your workspace premium or shared?. 

Scheduled refresh for imported datasets timeout after two hours. This timeout is increased to five hours for datasets in Premium workspaces. If you encounter this limit, It is suggested to consider reducing the size or complexity of your dataset, or consider breaking the dataset into smaller pieces.

For further information, you may refer to the following link.

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

Best Regards

Allan

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

[Anonymous]

Hi Allan,

The problem occurs in Power BI desktop when refreshing the data. The 8 excel files are located on a network server on premise. I don't have the idea that the amount of data can be the problem (50MB). What is the software exactly doing in the phase 'creating connection in model', because this is exactly the problem. 

Thanks for you help.

[v-alq-msft]

Hi, @Anonymous 

I'd like to suggest you uncheck the following options in Power BI Desktop and then refresh your data model.

If the above error still occurs, please try to re-connect to the data source in Power BI Desktop, get columns and rows you need to build report.

Best Regards

Allan

[Anonymous · Accepted solution]

Hi Allan,

Problem solved by removing empty columns from one excel sheet in the query editor. Somehow all empty columns were imported into Power BI. Unchecking data load options did not solve the problem.