I’m encountering a significant limitation when working with Power BI reports connected to Direct Lake semantic models (via Fabric Lakehouse). After migrating a dataset from an Import model to Direct Lake using ALM Toolkit, I can no longer replace the existing report in the Power BI Service by publishing from Power BI Desktop — even though the dataset is correctly updated and the report is connected to the same semantic model.
Issue:
- Publishing from Desktop only replaces the dataset, not the report.
- The report visuals remain unchanged, even though the PBIX contains updated pages.
- This behavior is inconsistent with reports using Import or DirectQuery models, where publishing replaces both dataset and report.
- Manual editing in the Power BI Service is not a viable alternative due to limited functionality and the complexity of the report.
- Deleting and re-uploading the report breaks bookmarks, links, and Analyze in Excel connections, which is unacceptable in a production environment.
Request: Please consider enabling one or more of the following:
- Allow full report replacement from Desktop for reports connected to Direct Lake models, with a warning if bookmarks or personal views exist.
- Provide a “safe replace” option that updates report visuals while preserving user bookmarks and links.
- Improve documentation and tooling around managing reports connected to shared semantic models (especially Direct Lake).
- Enable Deployment Pipelines or ALM Toolkit to update both dataset and report in a single operation for Direct Lake scenarios.
This limitation is a major blocker for teams adopting Fabric and Direct Lake, and it undermines the benefits of centralized semantic models.
Thank you for considering this feedback.
