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garrek99's avatar
garrek99
Helper I
10 years ago
Solved

Removing data from .pbix file?

Does anyone know how to dump the data from a report file (while leaving everything else intact)?   We are backing up our report files daily and each file is like 300+MB.   Is there a way of dumpi...
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  • DarranShepherd's avatar
    DarranShepherd
    9 years ago

    I've just been trying this myself and observed different behaviour depending on how you save the .pbit

     

    File > Save As > .pbit = File size roughly equal to the original report

    File > Export > Power BI Template = Significantly reduced file size

ankitpatira's avatar
ankitpatira
Community Champion
10 years ago

garrek99 there is a way to dump data but that won't actually reduce your pbix file size. within query editor you have option of executing R script on your tables. so as a last step you can have R script that outputs your data into a csv but that will just take a dump out of your data. if you're interested in doing that then R script syntax will be,

 

 

garrek99's avatar
garrek99
Helper I
10 years ago

The thing is that our data is on the cloud and we see no point in having a copy of it in a csv file.

 

R is something we'll explore soon when we start playing with involved analytics.

 

TY

  • v-haibl-msft's avatar
    v-haibl-msft
    Microsoft Employee
    10 years ago

    garrek99

     

    Just to confirm, which file size did you observe? My template file (.pbit) will be much smaller than the .pbix file.

     

    A Power BI Report Template contains the definition of the Report (pages, visuals, etc.), Data Model definition (schema, relationships, measures, etc.) and Queries definition (collection of queries, including Query Parameters, etc.). In other words, a Power BI Report template includes pretty much everything that a Report file includes, with the exception of the data itself.

     

    Best Regards,

    Herbert

    • DarranShepherd's avatar
      DarranShepherd
      New Member
      9 years ago

      I've just been trying this myself and observed different behaviour depending on how you save the .pbit

       

      File > Save As > .pbit = File size roughly equal to the original report

      File > Export > Power BI Template = Significantly reduced file size

      • MattAllington's avatar
        MattAllington
        Community Champion
        9 years ago

        That's because the template removed the loaded data. As it's name suggest, it is just a template

    • garrek99's avatar
      garrek99
      Helper I
      10 years ago

      Hi Herbert. This is exactly what we want to accomplish but alas it's not working out. See image below.

      When I open the file it asks for the custom query parameters that we've set up and also right away goes into Data Refresh mode which indicates that we are on the right track. Unfortunately the file size remains huge.

       

    • garrek99's avatar
      garrek99
      Helper I
      10 years ago

      I even tried creating a .pbit from scratch and as soon as I save it the file size jumps.

       

      Are you doing the DirectQuery method or Import method? Could that be the difference?

      DirectQuery is not an option for us because it limits the capabilities too much.

      • v-haibl-msft's avatar
        v-haibl-msft
        Microsoft Employee
        10 years ago

        garrek99

         

        I'm also doing the Import mode. What about the solution provided by MattAllington?

         

        Best Regards,

        Herbert